To Build an Island
by Bluemoon375
Summary: Mark and Chelsea are two strangers who met on a boat after they both decide to leave their boring city life, but when a bizarre storm leaves them shipwrecked on Sunny Island they must work together to make it prosper, facing the drama that comes with it.
1. Shipmates

"God do I look awful." I thought to myself as I looked at myself in the mirror of what would soon no longer be my room.

Fresh out of college and without a job I figured the best thing I could do for myself was leave the city and find a new place to settle down. Sure, the city's a great place to live if you like the hustle and bustle lifestyle but at that point I wasn't exactly sure if it was for me. I guess you could say I was about to go on one of those soul searching journeys. You know the thing most people say they'll go on at some point but never do. Anyway, I wasn't heading anywhere specific and figured that a more adventurous look would be the best fit. I had gone out the other day and bought myself a new brown jacket, some overalls, boots, and a nice red bandana. It wasn't my usually kind of clothing, which is probably why I thought I looked awful in it, but I felt that it would be practical for whatever kind of conditions I'd soon face on my journey.

Tightening the bandana around my neck, I reached for my favorite cap sitting on my dresser nearby and placed it gently on my head, backwards as usual of course. I gave myself one last nod as I finished looking at myself in the mirror and headed over to my backpack resting next to the door. Putting it on I took one last look at my apartment. Having sold off most of my things in order to pay for my trip my room was looking quiet barren with only the most basic accommodations left. Though it had served me well over these past few years those times were over.

It was finally time for me to set out and find a place that I could truly call home and with that though fresh in my mind I set out for the docks.

* * *

Despite my somewhat early arrival there was still quite a line already forming for my ship. As I stood and waited for my turn I pulled my ticket out from my pocket and examined it.

_Mark Spurlock_

_Place of Departure: Newport Docks Destination: Mineral Town_

_Time of Departure: 4 p.m. Spring 01_

I had almost little to no knowledge about where I was headed. I had heard stories about Mineral Town from people throughout the city and from what I could gather it was a small town far off from the mainland. With no cities around it for miles and stretches of fields and other small towns all around it it seemed like it would be the perfect place for me to live.

"Next." The man collecting tickets ahead called.

I could already see myself wandering the open road, going at my own pace wherever I pleased. Staying in whatever towns lied in wait, meeting all their colorful and interesting characters. Finally finding that one place where I belonged.

"Next." He called again.

This was going to be great.

"Next!" He shouted, the word echoing through my ears.

Looking up I saw that he was calling out to me, my turn having come up just about when I started daydreaming.

"Ticket please?" He asked as I quickly approached him.

I began to scour my pockets in search of it. "Yeah, it's right… here…"

"Ehem." He voiced as he gestured towards my hand.

Glancing down at it I saw I had been holding my ticket the whole time. "Here you are."

Taking it from my hand he used his hole punch to mark it. "Travelling alone are we?" He asked as he handed it back.

I decided to simply nod my head and board the ship in order prevent myself from holding up the line anymore. I couldn't felt but feel a sense of loneliness come over me as I did though. After all, I was indeed making this grand journey by myself. Too late to do anything about that I suppose.

* * *

As I entered the hall I flipped my ticket over and began to scan it for information regarding my room arrangement.

Mark Spurlock 6A was all it read.

"Let's see here… 5B, 5C… ah, here we are, 6A." I muttered to myself as I found the room.

I opened the door to find two beds on opposite ends of the room with accompanying nightstands and a window in the between them with a small table in the center of the room. Exhausted, I took off my backpack and collapsed on the left bed before dropping my bag beside it, claiming this side as mine. It was only about a few minutes afterwards that I began to hear knocking on the door. By the time I got up it was already open and in the doorway stood a girl who appeared to be about my age. She wore a bright yellow shirt with a small orange jacket over it along with a red back pack and shorts on and a red bandana wrapped around her head partially covering her long orange hair.

"Um, hello. Is this the right room?" She asked me nervously.

"How should I know?" I replied, trying my hardest not to sound rude. I mean without knowing what room she's looking for how was I supposed to know.

She looked down at her ticket. "Well I'm looking for 6A and that's what it says on the door, so this must be it right?"

I nodded my head. "Mhmm."

"Great. I guess that makes us roommates, err make that shipmates actually I guess." She laughed, sounding admittedly cute.

"I guess so." I said as I give her a small courtesy laugh.

"My name's Chelsea by the way, what's yours?" She asked.

"It's Mark." I told her.

Much like me she removed her backpack and placed it next to the opposite bed and sat down on it. "So, why are you traveling?"

"No real reason. I just don't feel like the city is right for me and just thought I'd take trip to see what's out there." I answered. "What about you?"

"Pretty much the same reason. I mean sure the city can be fun but I just want to go out and see the world you know." She replied.

I simply smiled and nodded my head.

She gave me a half-hearted smile and looked away for a brief moment before quickly looking back at me, her eyes lit up.

"H-hey, would you, I don't… maybe want to travel together when we arrive?" She asked, a hint of nervousness in her tone.

"Like, together?" I asked as stupid as it sounds.

She nodded her head. "Y-yeah."

I stared at her for a moment. Sure she was practically a complete stranger to me but she seemed innocent enough. Plus that look in her eyes as she stared back at me simply wouldn't allow me to say no.

"Sure, that sounds like a great idea." I replied.

"Really?" She exclaimed before toning it back a bit. "Great. I'm sure it'll be fun."

Suddenly the ships horn went off signaling our departure from the dock.

"Well it looks like we're moving." Chelsea noticed.

"Seems like it." I replied as I turned my hat around and tipped it down while laying my head on my pillow.

"You tired?" She asked.

"Just a little bit with all this excitement and all." I answered. "I think I'm going to take a nap."

"Well I think I'm going to step outside then." She said as she stood up. "I'll try not to wake you when I come back."

"Thanks." I said.

My eyes shut in synchronization with the door as she leaves. As I start to drift asleep I can't help but wonder what me and my new friend Chelsea will experience on our journey.


	2. Washed Ashore

I doubt I had been asleep for more than two hours before I found myself awoken by the ships rather erratic rocking. Doing the best I could to balance myself, I managed to sit up and glanced out the window beside me. Unsurprisingly enough I found that the ships rocking was a result of a massive storm taking place right outside, the ship likely having sailed into it. Just then I heard the door begin to open and turned around to see as Chelsea reentered the room, drenched in water.

"Oh, you're up." She said after having slowly closed the door before facing me. She probably did so in order not wake me up.

I stretched before replying. "Yeah, all this crazy rocking from the weather outside woke me up."

She untied her bandana and began to ring it out over the small garbage bin near the door. "Yeah, it's pretty rough out there."

"I take it you were outside?" I asked, sounding a bit sarcastic now that I think about it.

"I was, and I was enjoying it. Well, I guess until it started raining and I got soaked that is." She laughed as she wrapped her bandana back around her head.

At that moment the ships rocking became more severe. I quickly gripped the sides of the bed to keep myself in place and watched as Chelsea tried to balance herself in front of the door. The ship began to calm down and stop shaking just as she managed to stabilize herself. She looked up at me and flashed me a smile when another large wave crashed against the ship knocking her down.

"Are you alright?" I practically shout as I jumped from my spot on the bed.

I knelt beside her and extended my arm out to her.

"I'm fine." She answered as she grabbed my hand and sat up, rubbing her head with her other free hand. "Thanks for asking though."

We began to stand up but the unfortunate timing of another wave hitting the ship caused me to fall backwards with Chelsea ending up right on top of me. Yeah, let's say it was unfortunate. Grunting in pain, she lied on top of me for a moment. Once I began to feel her getting off of me I opened my eyes and immediately became fixed on hers as she did the same. They seemed so gentle and innocent, just the perfect shade of blue.

After staring at each other for what felt like forever she quickly sat back up and scooted a bit away from me.

"Sorry about that." She laughed nervously.

"O-oh, don't worry about it, it's fine." I told her as I sat up as well and began to brush myself off.

Suddenly we heard a knock at the door and one of the ship's crew members entered the room as we stood up.

"Captain's ordered the evacuation of the ship. All travelers are to get to the lifeboats immediately." He informed us, a gravely serious look haunting his face.

Before either of us had a chance to say anything back he quickly left the room and moved on to the next.

"So much for having a nice trip." I muttered once again sounding sarcastic, though this time it was intended.

Chelsea sighed. "Yeah... I'm sure they'll at least give us a ticket for another trip when we get back to the city or something." Her eyes trailed off towards the window as lightening flashed across the sky. "I guess we probably better get over to the lifeboats then, huh."

"Yeah." I replied.

Stepping out into the hall, Chelsea and I immediately found ourselves joining the sea of passengers out in the hall all trying to get out to the deck. Deciding to move along with them rather than force our way through we eventually found ourselves out on the deck, rain pouring from the sky. The whole outside was a mess with people running everywhere to find their families or a lifeboat, it looked like something out of a movie or a war scene.

"Come on!" I shouted to Chelsea as I briefly turned to face her, grabbing her hand once more as I did so.

I quickly turned back around and began to drag her along as I forced my way through the mob of people surrounding us. It was almost like swimming against a current. While I was focused on getting us on one of the lifeboats I remained completely oblivious to how Chelsea's gaze refused to stray away from my hand that was gripped on hers, a slight blush on her face. As we neared one of the boats yet another violent wave crashed into the ship.

"Mark!" Chelsea exclaimed as I felt her hand leave mine.

I quickly turned around to see that she was falling towards me. Wasting no time I extended my arms and wrapped them around her to keep her from falling any further.

"Don't worry, I got you." I told her as I helped her up to her feet, it seemed like we were practically hugging at this point.

Before we could even begin our next move another wave rammed against the other side of the ship, tilting it at large angle. Unable to keep my footing on the slippery deck, I began to slide towards the edge of the ship. I tried to regain my balance but the rocking proved too much. The last thing I could remember was being unable to react as another wave hit the ship causing me to plummet over the guardrail, Chelsea still in my arms.

* * *

"_Mark…" _

"_Mark… Wake up Mark!"_

I could feel the sandy ground of a beach underneath me as I opened my eyes to see Chelsea leaning over me. In contrast to the stormy weather I could last remember the sky was instead clear with almost all the stars visible. Chelsea's blue eyes shimmered in the low light.

She let out a sigh of relief as she sat back and placed her hand over her heart. "Oh thank Goddess you're ok."

"What, what happened?" I wearily asked as I sat up and rubbed my head. I could feel a slight bump underneath my cap

"You fell overboard… and sort of dragged me with you." She answered without any sort of anger in her voice to my surprise.

"I… I what?" I exclaimed.

She smiled as she placed her hand on me. "It's ok Mark. You probably would have drowned if you didn't take me with you. You hit your head on the boat on the way down and kind of got knocked out. Luckily I was there and managed to keep your head above the water."

I became less tense and leaned back. "Really?" I paused for a moment before chuckling once I saw that she wasn't going to reply with anything else other than a smile. "Well, thanks then. I guess I owe you one."

She simply continued to smile as I began to scan the small beach area we were on.

"So, where exactly are we?" I finally asked.

"I don't know. I couldn't carry you and reach one of the lifeboats at the same time so we just drifted around in the ocean and ended up on this island after what felt like hours." She explained, the smile fading from her face.

"Is anyone else here with us?" I ask.

"I'm pretty sure it's just us two." She answered. "I haven't seen anyone else since we got here."

"What about over there?" I asked as noticed as small shack in the distance, pointing towards it as I did so.

She looked back at it before facing me again. "No. When we first washed up here I checked to see if anyone was inside but it's just an old run down shack. I tried to get inside but the door's been boarded up."

I looked at her, my expression indicating I was both somewhat afraid and nervous. "So it's just us here then?"

She smiled at me again in what seemed like an effort to calm me down but I could still tell that she was just as worried as me. "Don't worry Mark; I'm sure we'll be fine."

"I hope so." I was all I could say back.

"Look, let's just get some rest for now. We can explore this island in the morning when it's brighter." She suggested. "Sides, I'm sure we could both use some after what we just went through."

I nod my head and rest my head back on the sand as Chelsea does the same beside me. I shut my eyes and begin to fall asleep, hoping that we'll be alright.

* * *

The following morning I opened my eyes to find that Chelsea had practically nudged herself into my chest. She looked so peaceful and dare I say a little cute as she slept huddled beside me.

I gave her a little nudge with my elbow. "Hey, Chelsea."

Her eyelids slowly began to flutter before suddenly exploding open once they registered how close she was to me.

"Time to wake up." I told her.

"Mark! I'm so sorry!" She exclaimed as she sat up and quickly backed away from me. "I didn't mean to get so close!"

I laughed. "It's alright."

"I, I was just a little cold last night, that's all." She explained, still sounding nervous.

"It's alright Chelsea." I repeated as I sat up and stretched out my arms. "You ready to go out and explore this place?"

"Yeah, I'm ready." She replied before placing her hand on her stomach, a somewhat pained expression coming onto her face. "I just wish we had some food. I haven't eaten anything since I left for the boat yesterday."

Her words made my own belly start to grumble. "Maybe if we're lucky we'll find some somewhere here."

"I hope so."

We both stood up and stretched for moment before heading up towards the small path located in the opening at the end of the beach. We didn't follow the path for long until we found ourselves in an area filled with abandoned houses much like the one we saw out on the beach. It seemed like a town square of sorts, or at least that's what it probably was way back when.

"What happened here?" I asked aloud.

Without answering Chelsea began to stroll around the area and closely examine all of the houses with me close behind. Each one seemed to have the same treatment, that is all of the doors and windows were boarded up with old worn planks. They looked as if they hadn't been touched in years. Getting back on what we could then assume was the main road, we followed the trail to past the hills near the upper part of the area and found ourselves in a large clearing with only one house, a large field of soil sitting behind it.

"Looks like this could have been a farm or something." I remarked as I examined the area.

Chelsea again began to wander off towards the house nearby without a word.

"Think you can get these off?" She asked as I approached her, referring to the planks that blockaded the door.

"Well, I can try." I answered.

I walked up to the door and placed my hands on one of the boards and started to pull. The plank however refused to budge. Guess I should have spent more time at the gym or something.

"It's no use." I finally tell her as I let go of the board, exhausted. "It's nailed on there pretty tight, maybe if we had somebody else to help we could get them off."

Discouraged, we headed back towards the town like area. As we approached the crossroad between the buildings Chelsea stopped

"Hey, what's that over there?" She asked as she pointed towards what appeared to be a forest.

We started to approach it but soon stopped as we realize the area between us and the forest is divided by a river. It isn't that wide but enough to prevent us for venturing any further.

"Looks like the used to be a bridge here." I said as I looked towards the road nearby and spotted remnants of what appeared to be one on the edge of it, similar remains laid on the other side across from it.

I waited to see if Chelsea would reply for once but it seemed that she was preoccupied with something else at the moment. I glanced over at her and noticed how her eyes appeared to be fixed on something on the other side of the river.

"What is it?" I asked.

She merely pointed out towards the forest.

"There's… there's something out there." She answered, giving off the sense of fear inside her.

I looked out in the direction she pointed and immediately noticed a figure walking about the shadows of trees deep inside the forest, it didn't seem to notice us back though.

"What is that?" She asked, still sounding frightened.

I shook my head. "I don't know. It must be an animal or something."

"That can't be an animal. It looks too much like a person to be an animal." She replied.

"Come on." I began as I placed my hand on her shoulder and began to direct her back in the direction of the beach. "Let's just head back towards the beach before that thing has a chance to spot us."

She nodded her head as her stare remind fixed on the forest, even as I began to lead her away. "Alright."

Eventually we reach the beach once more and take a seat back down in the sand.

"So what are we going to do now?" Chelsea asked.

"I don't know… We have no food, no idea where we are, and as far as we know nobody has an idea we're out here." I answered, seeming to depress her and admittedly myself. I didn't really mean to be that dishearten her with an answer like that but I felt it was best to be honest in a situation like that rather than lie.

She became silent and kicked her feet around in the sand a little. I looked over at her as she glanced at me and I gave her a reassuring smile. She smiled back at me for a moment before looking back down at the ground, her arms wrapped around her feet. I gazed out at the ocean as that sense of discouragement began to fill my heart once more but that quickly changed when I noticed something that could change or luck floating out in the distance.

"Hey Chelsea, there's a raft out there!"


	3. New Arrivals and Homes

Chelsea and I instantly started to shout at the raft out in the distance to draw it towards us but our efforts seemed pointless as it already appeared to be heading towards the island anyway. As it grew closer to the shore it became easier to identify the four passengers aboard. It appeared to be a small family made up of a girl, a boy, and a middle aged woman, all with pink hair, and a much older looking man who was carrying a rather large stick. A small wave from the ocean brought the raft into the sand a few feet away from us and to my surprise the old man jumped out of the raft began to approach us. The boy and girl stayed behind to help the woman out of the raft.

"Hello there." The old man greeted once he stood in front of us.

"Hello." Both Chelsea and I say almost in unison.

I watched as his eyes scanned the beach and became fixed on the shack off in the distance behind us. "Strange house you got there."

"Oh, that's not our house." I told him.

"Yeah, we washed up on the shore here last night after we got knocked overboard off out boat." Chelsea explained.

"Oh? So you don't live here?" The woman asked as her and the other two joined us, obviously having heard our brief remark.

"No, and as far as we can tell we're the only ones on this island." I explain.

"That's too bad." She said before pausing for a moment. "Oh, where are our manners, we haven't introduced ourselves yet. My name's Felicia."

"Hello Felicia." Chelsea and I greet in near unison again.

"This is my father Taro, and my two kids, Natalie and Elliot." Felicia told us as she motioned to each of them.

"Hello there, nice to meet you two." Elliot greeted quiet cheerful.

Natalie crossed her arms and looked off into the distance. "Hi."

"It's nice to meet you all." Chelsea began as she clasped her hands together. "My name's Chelsea."

"Mine's Mark." I told them.

"It's nice to meet you both." Felicia said with a smile.

Taro cleared his throat in order to draw all of our attention towards him. "Well, now that we've all introduced ourselves I think we should all focus on the issue of what we're going to do now."

"Well Chelsea and I were hoping that we'd be able to use that raft of yours to get back to the mainland." I explained.

Taro shook his head. "I wish that were possible."

"What do you mean?" I ask.

"Well there are quite a few holes in it that we just barely managed to keep clogged on our way here so there's that. Plus we have no idea where the mainland is." Elliot explained.

"Well there's not much we can do here." I replied. "There's a bunch of houses further down the road but they're all boarded up. I tried to get one of them open but it was no use"

"Well don't lose faith already. I'm sure we can find a way to get inside these houses you speak of." Taro said.

"Yeah, I bet if we try now we can get in one of them." Chelsea began before she started to walk towards the trail behind us. "Come on, we'll show you where they are."

I began to follow Chelsea before turning around and motioning for Taro and them to follow us. When I caught up to Chelsea in the middle of the crossroads in the center of the town I noticed that she was eyeing the house near the valley leading to the farm area

"Let's try this one first." She said after a moment as she pointed at it.

I cracked my knuckles since it seemed like an appropriate time to do so. "Alright, let's give it a shot."

The two of us walked up to the doorway and began to tug with all our might on one of the planks that block it. Seeing as we we're struggling, Elliot came up and joined us in pulling on it and after another moment we began to hear the board creak it began to come off. We all let up for a second before giving it one final tug, forcing it off the door.

"See? We can do this." Chelsea declared triumphantly with a laugh before stopping to catch her breath.

After a quick breather, the three of us grabbed another one of the remaining planks and began to tug on it, doing the same to the last one once it was off. Once the door was no longer barricaded the six of us headed inside. While there was no light except from the sunlight coming in from the doorway and the openings in the boarded up windows we we're pleasantly surprised to find that whoever lived here before had left behind all there furnishings, even if they were all dusty and old. I hope they know how thankful we are.

"Well that's odd." Chelsea murmured as approached the table sitting in the middle of the room and brushed her finger on it, examining the dust that accumulated on it afterwards.

Felicia wandered off into the back room of the house before reentering the main room. "Well there's some beds back there but there isn't enough for all of us."

"How many are there?" I asked.

"Four." Felicia answered as she held up the same amount of fingers.

"Oh, well that's ok. Mark and I can go and find another place to stay." Chelsea said as she looked over her shoulder at me. "Right?"

She could probably see how uneasy I got at that idea. "Yeah, of course we can find our _own _place to stay."

"Elliot, Natalie, why don't you two go with them to incase they need some help getting into one of these old houses." Felicia suggested.

"Alright, sure thing mom." Elliot replied.

Natalie just stood there with her arms still crossed and rolled her eyes.

The four of us exited the house while Felicia and Taro continued to examine what its previous owners had left behind.

Once we stood in the crossroad again I looked over at Chelsea. "So what house are we going to take?"

"How about the one that's just up the trail?" She asked.

"Sounds good." I replied before turning to Natalie and Elliot. "Follow us."

Elliot nodded his head. "Alright."

"Whatever." Natalie muttered

We led them up the trail to the farm and once we arrived at the house Chelsea, Elliot and I began to try and pull off the boards blocking the door only to find the ones here are nailed in much better.

"Can you give us a hand here Natalie?" Elliot finally asked his sister when it became obvious we wouldn't be able to get it off ourselves.

She just stared off in the distance as if she was bored. "Come on, I'm sure you guys can get it just fine without me."

"We could really use your help here." I requested, struggling between every other words as I continued to pull on the plank with all my strength.

She rolled her eyes once more and groaned. "Fine."

She was practically stomping the ground as she approached us. In one swift motion she then placed her hands on the board and gave a quick tug causing it instantly comes off the door, the three of us falling to the ground as a result.

"There. Was that so hard?" She scolded as she tossed the board aside.

Chelsea and I just stared at her in surprise for a moment before getting up to help her with the remaining planks. With the doorway cleared Natalie wasted no time heading back towards town as Elliot stayed back to accept our thanks. Once he began to leave Chelsea and I decided it was time to see what was in store for us in our own new home. In contrast with their house there was only one room in ours with table, cabinet, tool box, and fridge scattered about the house. What really drew our attention, however, was the single queen sized bed sitting opposite of the door.

"Well, this is a little interesting." I noted as I began to rub my head nervously.

Though she simply smiled as she continued to remain fixed on it I could tell she was just trying to hide the fact she felt the same way. An A for effort I suppose.

"I-If you want I can go and find another house, or something." I suggested.

She turned to me with that smile still on her face. "It's alright Mark. I'm sure we can handle… you know… sleeping together… Right?"

"Yeah… we can handle it… I hope…" I replied, muttering that last bit of course.

She smiled at me again before going over to the tool box at the foot of the bed. "So let's see what's inside here."

I stood beside her as she opened it up to reveal a hammer, sickle, fishing pole, hoe, and an axe.

"Looks like this really was a farm before." She commented.

While she continued to search the tool box for anything else I headed over to the cabinet and opened it to find a large assortment of seeds sitting inside.

"Finally, some food!" I shouted happily.

"Um, there's just one problem there Mark." Chelsea began as she approached me. "Those are seeds, we have to plant those first."

My expression quickly changed as the revelation hit me. "You're right, and I don't know even know the first thing about farming."

"Neither do I." She added.

I turned to her as I began to think. "Let's go find Taro and them. I'm sure they can help."

She nodded her head and we left what could now safely be called the farm house and walked back over to Taro's house. We entered through the still open doorway to find that they were all sitting at the table in the center of the room. They appeared to be tired.

"So how'd things go over at your new house?" Taro asked. "You two find anything?"

"Well we found some farming tools and a fishing rod along with some seeds but neither of us really knows how to use any of them." I answered.

He chuckled. "I think I can be of help there. I used to be a rancher back in my day and can teach the both of you how to farm."

Chelsea clapped her hands together happily. "Really? That would be great."

"Yeah, if we can get some food out of those seeds I'm sure we could manage living here." I remarked.

"Then it's settled, tomorrow I'll start teaching you two how to farm." Taro announced.

Felicia and Elliot joined Chelsea in smiling as Natalie remained unfazed by the good news.

"Wait, tomorrow?" I asked "What are we supposed to do for food today then?"

"You said you had a fishing pole didn't you?" Taro asked as Chelsea and I nod our heads. "I taught Elliot how to fish before. Go and get that pole of yours over here and I'm sure he can catch us something to eat. Besides, even if started farming today we still wouldn't be able to eat for a while." He turned to face Elliot. "So think you remember enough to get us some dinner?"

"Well it's been a while since I fished but I'm sure I can manage to get something by the end of the day." He replied.

"Alright, then I guess I'll be right back." I told them all before stepping back outside to retrieve the fishing pole.

Sure enough Elliot was able to pull through for us and by the end of the day he managed to catch a few fish which Felicia was able to cook nicely in a fire that Chelsea and I built with Taro's help. While their house did have an oven none of us were sure if it worked and decided it would be best to try it out on a later day. We discussed our plans for the following day over dinner with the gist of it being that Taro would come teach us the basics of farming while Felicia, Elliot, and Natalie would work on fixing up their house. Once we were done, Chelsea and I said our goodbyes and headed back to our new home.

As we prepared for bed I removed my hat and placed it on a rack situated beside the door, taking my backpack off as well and placing it underneath it. Chelsea did the same with hers before untying her headband and placing it on the table in the center of the room.

"Well I guess it's time for bed…" I practically announced, albeit nervously.

"Come on Mark, we agreed we could handle this." She reminded me.

"I know, I know." I muttered loudly as I walked up to the left side of the bed and began to climb in, Chelsea doing the same on the other side.

Once we were settled we simply stared at each other, basically gazing into one another's eyes.

"So this is a pretty exciting experience huh?" She asked, breaking the silence between us.

"Yeah, I guess things could have been much worse." I agreed.

She laughed. "Yeah, and to think it's all because you managed to take me overboard with you."

I began to laugh as well. "I'm still sorry about that."

"I told you it's alright Mark. Besides, I still think you're a good friend." She told me.

Something about that comment managed to make me even more nervous. "You think of me as a friend already?"

"Well, of course I do. I mean we're going to be farmers together now and we do _live _together." She explained. "Even if we we're still on the boat we would have been living together for a while, plus you did promise you'd travel with me afterwards…"

I looked away as to hide my blush. I guess I had forgotten how much time we'd be spending together, it made sense she'd want to be on good terms with me.

She started to laugh again only this time it was at my expense. "We better get to sleep. We have a busy day tomorrow."

I looked back at her again, hoping she would notice if my cheeks were still red. "You're right. I guess I'll see you in the morning then."


	4. Farming 101

The following morning Chelsea and I awoke to the sound of a loud banging noise on our door. Talk about a wakeup call. Groggily, I rolled out from my spot in the bed and walked over to the door to find Taro standing outside when I opened it.

"Good morning." He greeted.

"Good morning?" I asked as I leaned over outside and looked up into the sky to see that the sun was just barley beginning to rise. "Are you sure it still isn't night? The sun's not even up yet."

"Who is it Mark?" I heard Chelsea ask as she approached me from behind.

I yawned before answering. "It's Taro."

"Taro, what are you doing here?" She asked, now standing beside me.

"Well as I was about to tell Mark I'm here to teach you two how to farm." He answered.

"But it's so early." Chelsea complained. Glad to see I'm not the only one to think so.

"Then let this be your first lesson." Taro began. "If you want to have a successful farm you're going to have to get up this early _every day_."

I felt my jaw begin to drop down to the floor. "What? Do you even have any idea what time it is?"

Chelsea and I watched as Taro lowered his eyebrows and entered a deep state of concentration before looking up in the sky.

"It's only five forty nine, a.m. of course." He said as he looked back up at us.

"How the hell do we even know if you're right?" I asked.

He stared angrily at me for a moment before lightly bobbing me on the head with the end of his cane. "That doesn't matter right now. Besides, if been alive long enough to be able to know these things just by listening to nature."

Listening to nature? I should either feel really uneasy about that comment or be really happy that this guy wound up on this island.

I turned around to find that Chelsea had moved from my side and over to the table, tying her bandana back around her head. Once it was in place she headed back towards me and grabbed my hat of the rack.

"Here you go Mark." She said as she handed it to me.

I placed it on backwards on my head. "Thanks."

"Well now that we're ready let's get started." She proclaimed Taro and me, happily.

The two of us began to take a step outside but Taro turned his cane sideways and held it up against the doorway to block us.

"We can't start just yet." He informed us.

"Why not?" I asked.

"I believe you two are forgetting something." He answered.

Chelsea and I looked at each other for, her eyes lighting up a moment later.

"Oh! Where forgetting the seeds and equipment aren't we?" She asked to which Taro replied with a nod. Thank Goddess she's so aware, it's just too early for me.

Chelsea walked back to the cabinet that contains the seeds and opened it. "Would you mind getting the farming equipment Mark?" She asked as she turned her head. "I'll get the seeds."

"I'm on it." I replied before heading to the tool box.

"Be sure to only get spring crops." Taro told Chelsea.

"Spring crops? Which are those?" She asked sounding rather puzzled. "There are a lot of seeds here."

"Turnips, potatoes, strawberries, they can all only be harvested this season." Taro replied back.

"Oh! Here we are." Chelsea exclaimed as she began to pull out a few bags out of the cabinet. "There are some potato and strawberry seeds right here."

I joined Chelsea in walking back towards Taro with the hoe and watering can I retrieved from the tool box in my hands. Once we we're in front of him he lowered his eyebrows once more as he began to examine us. I smiled nervously at him, hoping we had everything we needed.

After allowing the suspense to build for a while he finally nodded his head. "Yes, it seems you got everything." He turned around and began to walk away. "Let's go."

We stepped out of the house and followed him out to the field. He paused suddenly and began to examine the rock, weed, and stick infested field.

He shook his head as he looked down at the ground. "No, no, no, this just won't do now."

I dropped the watering can and hoe down on the ground allowing my frustration to be seen. "What is it now?"

I could tell he was getting agitated by the way he looked at me as he turned around. "What's the problem? Just look at this field, it's a mess! There's no way you two can grow anything here."

Chelsea dropped the bags of seed in her hands. "You mean we got up this early for nothing?"

"Don't get too upset just yet." Taro began. "You two will just have to clean up this whole field first before I can teach you how to farm."

I felt as my jaw dropped to the ground again. Clean up this whole field? Is he serious? It's huge!

"Clean up this whole field? Are you serious? It's huge! It'll take hours." Chelsea exclaimed, stealing the words right out of my head.

"I'll be back later to check up on you two." Taro told us as he turned around. "I expect to see most of this place spotless when I return."

Chelsea and I watched with disbelief as he then left, leaving us with the whole field to clean up. Once he was out of view I picked up the stick at my feet and threw it into the distance.

"Well this is just great." I mumbled.

Chelsea sighed before looking at me with a reassuring smile though I could tell that she was partially faking it. "Well I guess we should've expected to do some hard work if we were going to be farmers. Or is it ranchers?"

"I don't really think it matters." I replied. No really, I don't think it does.

"Oh well." She muttered under her breath. "So, where should we start?"

"I don't know, how about I get the rocks out of the way while you get the sticks?" I suggested.

"Alright, I guess we can both get any of the weeds we come across too." She replied.

With that workload organized the two of us began to clean up the field to the best of our abilities. It didn't help that after what felt like a few hours we had only managed to clear around a third of the field and now had the blazing sun beginning to creep above us.

I wiped the sweat from my forehead after tossing another rock over into the pile I had made by the house before shouting over at Chelsea. "How are you holding up Chelsea?"

When she didn't reply I turned around and watched as she struggled to pull a weed out of the ground.

"I'm… just… fine..." She shouted back before finally uprooting the weed, falling backwards onto the ground with it in her hand afterwards.

I couldn't help but laugh as I walked over to her.

"Need a hand?" I asked as I extended my hand out to her.

"It's not funny Mark." She said trying to sound all serious.

I stopped laughing and just grinned at her.

She finally let out a little giggle as she accepted my gesture. "Ok, I guess it was a little funny."

"What do you say we take a little break?" I asked once she was on her feet.

"Sure, that sounds great." She replied.

The two of us headed over to one of the trees nearby the farm house and sat down in the shade underneath it. We sat in silence and relaxed as the cool spring breeze blew past us.

"You know it actually is kind of nice here." Chelsea said.

"Yeah, it's actually pretty peaceful when you don't have to do any work." I replied jokingly.

She giggled again. "Yeah, it is." She leaned further back against the tree. "I wonder what Felicia and all of them are up to now."

"Who knows?" I answered as I turned my hat around and tilt it down before leaning back further myself. "I know what I'm going to do though."

"You're going to sleep?" She guessed as she looked over at me.

"Why not?" I asked. "We've worked all morning and I think we deserve a little rest. Besides remember how early we had to get up?"

She placed her arms behind her head. "Well I guess we did earn at least an hour's worth of rest..."

The two of us shut our eyes and began to fall asleep.

* * *

I doubt we had been asleep for more than two hours when we began to hear Taro yelling at us.

"Sleeping on the job I see!" He shouted.

Though I opened my eyes slowly it was fast enough to watch as he brought the top of his cane down onto my head. For an old man he sure had a temper.

"Ah, cut that out!" I shouted as I covered my head to block any further hits.

"Get up you two." He ordered.

Chelsea and I wasted no time listening to him he turned around to looks observe our work.

"Look at this field. You two didn't even manage to get half of it cleared." He remarked. "What makes you two think you were allowed a break?"

"We worked so hard cleaning up what we did that we just thought we earned at least a little resting time." Chelsea told him.

"Yeah, and besides, I doubt we have enough seeds to cover half of what we cleared." I added. I mean we only had like six bags anyway.

Taro began to mumble to himself. "Fine, you two are beginners so I guess have to be a little forgiving every now and then."

Boy did that make me feel happy.

"So, where are those seed bags?" Taro asked.

"They're right here." Chelsea answered as she pulls them out of her backpack.

"And the hoe?" He asks.

I ran out into the field and pick it up where I left it. "Here it is." I shouted back.

"Good." He said as he walked over to me with Chelsea following closely behind him.

"So what do we do now?" She asked.

"Now that ground has been cleared we have to till the soil with the hoe." Taro explained as he looked at me.

"I guess that will be my job?" I asked, knowing the obvious answer.

Taro nodded his head at me. "We're going to need a row or two tilled so you better get started."

I nodded my head back and began to go to work in the field, continuing to listen to Taro as he talks to Chelsea.

"We're also going to need so water so you're going to have to fill up that watering can with some from the river nearby." He informed her.

As I worked I turned and watched as Chelsea ran over and grabbed the watering can before heading over to the river off in the distance.

I continued to till the field like Taro asked and once I had two rows done I walked back over to him and Chelsea.

"What now?" I asked.

"Now we plant the seeds and water them." Taro replied.

He walked over to the pile of seed bags sitting on the ground nearby and stood beside it.

"Mark your job will be to spread the seeds out evenly while Chelsea waters them." He explained.

Without replying I walked over to him and picked the seed bags up and walk towards the area of the field I worked. I opened the first bag of potato seeds and began to spread them around the first row of tilled soil while Chelsea, like Taro said, followed behind me and watered the seeds with the watering can. By the time we moved onto the second row I had run out of potato seeds and began to use the strawberry ones instead. I guessed it didn't matter as long as we'd be getting food out of it. Once I finish the last of the seeds I looked up at the now orange sky, we had been working all day and the sun was already beginning to set.

"So how long will it take for these seeds to grow?" I asked Taro.

"It'll take a few days for them to start sprouting and about a week for them after that to mature." He answered.

"Almost two weeks? What are we supposed to eat until then?" I asked.

"Whatever Elliot can catch us." He replied. "He's been fishing all day catching our meals for the next few days."

"Fish for every meal?" I asked, voicing my displeasure at the very idea.

"If you don't want any then don't eat." He retorted. "It's all we got here for now. Now come along then, it's actually probably about time to eat and I'm sure you could use some food, even if it is fish."

He started to walk off in the direction of his house as Chelsea approached me.

"It's not that bad Mark. Just think, in two weeks we'll have at least have some variety." She told me, trying to raise my spirits.

"Yeah, I guess you're right." I said before smiling at her as a thanks. "Come on, let's go eat."

The remainder of the evening was largely the same as the previous. As we ate our meal of fish Chelsea and I received some thanks from the rest of Taro's family due to the hard work we did, if only they knew. Afterwards Chelsea and I walked home and, just like the night before, removed our headgear and backpacks before crawling into our bed. I sat there silently for a while just staring at the ceiling before glancing over at her to find she had already fallen asleep. Poor girl, she was so tuckered out after our first hard day of work that she couldn't even stay up to chat.

At least she still managed to look cute.

Goddess what am I thinking. We met only a few days ago, I barely know her and already I'm calling her cute. Well, it is sort of true at least.


	5. More Work

Once more Chelsea and I found ourselves waking up to the sound of Taro banging his cane against the door. Thankfully going to sleep so early the previous day meant I didn't feel that tired. Granted, I still felt a little tired but just not as much as I did before.

"Is that Taro again?" Chelsea asked in a tired voice as she sat up in the bed rubbed her eyes.

"Sounds like it." I replied as began to get out of bed.

Once up, I walked to the door and fetched my hat of the rack and placed it on my head before opening the door. Sure enough it was Taro.

"Good morning Taro." I greeted.

"Come on you two, it's time to get to work." He bluntly ordered before turning around and heading off to the field.

I turned around as Chelsea walked up to me with her bandanna already in her hair.

"Let's get going Mark." She said before flashing me a cute smile as she stepped outside.

I began to blush as I watched her walk away. It's only been a few days since we've met and already I'm glad that she was the one I got washed ashore with.

Suddenly I felt as Taro once again brought that cane of his down on my head, it seems he wanted to waste no time today.

"Come on slacker, get a move one." He demanded.

I rubbed my head where he had struck "Alright, alright I'm coming."

I followed closely behind Taro as he walked back out to the field and began to stare out at it silently. About two minutes passed and he continued to remain silent, prompting Chelsea to speak up.

"So what are we suppose to be doing here?" She asked.

I can't help but feel just a little bit conflicted as I watched Taro give her a whack on the top of her head with his cane for once. While I was glad that it wasn't me he was hitting for once I couldn't help but feel that hitting her was a little uncalled for.

"What do you think you're doing Taro?" I asked a little angrily.

He quickly turned around and gave me another whack on the head. "I'm trying to get you two to start thinking straight."

"What?" I asked, sounding even angrier than before as I rub my head along with Chelsea. I swear one day I'll break that cane of his. Goddess knows how many brain cells of mine he's managed to kill off so far.

"Isn't it obvious that you two have to water the crops once again?" He asked sounding just as aggravated.

"It wasn't that obvious…" Chelsea muttered quietly as she continued to rub her head.

"If we're done arguing I'd like to see you two get to work now." He told us..

Sighing, I began to walk back in the direction of the house but Chelsea quickly ran ahead of me

"It's ok Mark; I'll get the watering can." She said as she turned to face me before continuing towards the house.

She returned about a minute later with the can and without instruction went about watering all the mounds of dirt in the field where we had planted the seeds. It didn't take her long to finish the simple task and once she was done she came back over by Taro and me.

"So I take it we're done for the day?" I asked.

I felt his cane come down on my head, giving me what I guess should have been an obvious answer.

"Of course not!" Taro shouted before he turned back to the field. "I want you two to clean up the rest of this field like you _should_ have yesterday."

"Alright, I guess we can manage that, right Mark?" Chelsea asked.

I rubbed my head, again, and let out a grunt. "Yeah, that's if I can remember how to clean though. I might have forgotten how to after suffering all of this head trauma."

Taro's expression once again became angry. He raised his cane up and I began to shield my head but to my surprise he simply took a deep breath before bringing his raised arm back to his side.

"When you're finished come and find me." He said calmly before walking away, stopping briefly as he did. "And no breaks this time."

Once he was out of sight Chelsea turned to me. "Your head feeling alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." I replied as I took my hand off it.

"Good, I was starting to think I would have to do all this work by myself." She laughed.

I smiled. "Don't worry; I wouldn't let you clean this whole field alone."

"Good." She said as began to head for the messy part of the field. "Now let's get started."

* * *

Surprisingly enough, Chelsea and I decided to obey Taro and managed to not take even a single break as we cleaned the field. It took us about the whole day but by the time the sun was about to touch the horizon we removed the last obstruction from the field. Satisfied that our task was finally done, I walked back over to the shady tree the two of us sat under the day before and just as before seated myself underneath it. I removed my cap and wiped the sweat from my brow as I leaned against it.

"We finally finished." Chelsea announced happily as she walked up to me

She removed her headband and used it to wipe the sweat on her face.

"Yeah, it was hard but it was worth it." I replied as I look down at my hat in my hand and scratched the back of my head.

I looked back at her noticed how she seemed a little uneasy about putting her now sweat stained bandana back in her hair, her bangs blocking her view without it in place. I have to admit she looked a little cute as she struggles with her little dilemma. Oh Goddess what am I saying?

I leaned over towards her. "Here."

She pushed aside the hairs blocking her view and watched as I took my hat and placed it on her head.

"That'll keep your bangs out of your eyes until your bandana dries off." I told her.

She started to blush and giggled. "Awe, that's so nice of you to give me your hat."

"It's no trouble." I replied.

She began to adjust my hat how she wanted it before turning it backwards.

"So do I look like you now?" She asked with a laugh.

I laughed back. "No, there's no way you can look like me. You're too cute."

Wait, what did I just say?

She stopped laughing and blushed as she turned my hat back around and tipped it down to try and cover her face. "Do you really mean that Mark?"

I started to blush as well. "Well, I… um…"

She listened to me for what felt like eternity as I fumbled with my words, constantly repeating "um" and "well" as I tried to form an answer. The entire time she watched me her blush and nervous smile refused to leave her face. Come on Mark find a way out of this.

"We, we should probably go and find Taro now." I said quickly in order to change the subject.

She laughed a little and flipped my hat back around. "Yeah, we probably should."

We both got up from our spot under the tree and headed down the path towards Taros house. When we arrived we knocked on the door and were "greeted" by Natalie.

"Mark, Chelsea, what do you two want?" She asked coldly.

"We're looking for Taro. Is he here?" I asked.

"No, he's not here." She answered.

"Well do you know where he is?" Chelsea asked.

"No, I don't know where that old man went." Natalie answered.

"I think he's down by the beach." Elliot said as he walked up to the door from behind Natalie.

"What do you think you're doing interrupting my conversation?" Natalie asked Elliot harshly.

"I'm only trying to help…" Elliot replied a little nervously.

Natalie stared at him angrily for a moment before turning back to me and Chelsea.

"You heard my brother, he's at the beach right now." She snapped.

Chelsea and I quickly became just as nervous as Elliot.

"Alright, I guess we'll go and check the beach then." I told her.

Without even as much as a goodbye Natalie shut the door in our faces.

"I wonder what her problem is." Chelsea quietly asked herself as we started to head towards the beach.

Once we got there we easily spotted Taro standing out near the shore looking at some clouds off in the distance.

"Hey Taro!" I shouted as we approach him. "We've finished cleaning the field."

He continued to stare out into the ocean.

"Um, Taro? You there?" I asked.

After a moment he finally turned around with a serious look on his face as his right eyebrow is constantly moved up and down. Either he had a really bad twitch or I somehow seriously offended him again.

"Is something wrong?" Chelsea asked.

"You see this twitch?" He asked us as he pointed towards his eyebrow.

I wanted to be sarcastic and tell him no but when I remembered he'd probably hit me for that again I chose to nod my head instead.

He looked up towards the sky. "It means there's a storm coming… I can feel it." Oh Goddess here we go again...

"A storm?" Chelsea asked.

He nodded his head. "Another large one like that one that sunk that ship we were all on."

"What should we do? Should we prepare or something?" I asked.

"Nothing, just stay indoors till it passes over." He answered before becoming less tense. "So you two finished clearing the field?"

"Yeah, it's all finally cleared up." I replied.

He nodded his head again. "Good, I think you two have earned some dinner."

Chelsea placed her hands on her stomach as it began to growl. "Finally, I'm starving."

"Yeah, I could use some food too." I added.

The three of us began to walk back towards Taro's house ready to eat while the clouds off in the distance continued to grow closer.


	6. Rained In

After we finished yet another dinner of fish at Taro's house Chelsea and I were about to head out to the door when Felicia stopped us.

"Wait just a moment you two." She said.

We turned around to face her.

"What is it?" I asked.

She strolled over to the counter next to the stove and picked up a plate with two fish on it.

"I made you two a meal for tomorrow in case the weathers too bad for you to come over." She told us as she handed me the plate.

"Thanks." Chelsea said with a smile. "That's so kind of you."

"Oh it's no trouble dear. I just want to make sure you two don't starve is all." Felicia replied with a little laugh. "You've been working so hard since we've arrived here and I'm sure you could use a day off."

"Thanks." I said. Yes, thanks for reminding me that I won't have to put up with Taro, even if it is probably just a day.

"Yeah because cleaning up a field is such hard work…" Natalie muttered sarcastically.

"Come on Natalie, if it wasn't for them who knows what we'd be doing for food right now." Elliot argued, having heard her as well.

"We'd probably still be having these poor excuses for fish you catch." Natalie barked.

"Hey, I'd like to see you do better!" Elliot shouted, getting just as mad as her.

"Calm down you two." Taro began as entered their argument. I don't know who I should feel sorry for now.

Felicia quickly stepped in front of Chelsea and me and directed us towards the door. "Well you two better get going now. You don't want to get caught in the rain do you?"

"No, I guess not." I replied.

I turned back around with the dish in my hands as Chelsea kindly opened the door. As we stepped outside we could hear as Felicia seemed to join the quarrel going on inside. Outside I looked up in the sky and noticed how more dark clouds had begun to set in, the wind picking up as well.

"Felicia's right, we better get home." Chelsea noted.

We started to walk back towards the farm house but after about a few steps a large gust of wind blew by knocking my hat off of Chelsea's head.

"Hey, my hat!" I shouted as I watched it land on the ground ahead of us. Sure, it was just a hat but hey, it was _my _hat.

Chelsea laughed. "Don't worry Mark, I'll get it."

She ran over to my hat had landed and bent over to pick it up but the wind blew by again causing it to roll further away.

"Dang it." She huffed. "I got it this time."

I couldn't help but start to laugh as I watched the same scenario play out a few more times in front of me as the wind simply refused to let Chelsea grab my hat. Eventually she managed to finally grab a hold it and brushed the dust off of it before walking back to me.

"Here you go Mark." She said as she places it on my head.

I smiled. "Thanks."

"Oh, wait, I forgot something." She remarked.

She turned my hat around.

"There you go, just how you like it." She giggled.

I laughed. "Thanks, you know me so well already."

"I guess I do. Now come on we have to get home before it starts raining." She said.

With my hat safely back on my head we resumed our short walk back to the farm house and entered it just as soon as raindrops began to fall down from the sky. Inside we went through the usual process of me placing my hat on its hook while Chelsea removed her headband from her pocket and placed it on the table. The two of us then climbed into our bed and laid there silently for a moment as the sound of rain falling against the roof became louder and louder with each second.

There's just something about that sound that's so soothing. It's just so calming, it makes me tired.

So… very… tired…

"Hey Mark?" I heard Chelsea ask, waking me up a bit.

I turned around to face her only to see she was still facing the other way. "Yeah?"

"Did you really mean it when you said I was cute today?" She asked as she shuffled around under the sheets to look at me.

Now that really woke me up.

"Well… I…" I began.

Just like before I struggled to try and answer her question in any way possible though it didn't take as long for Chelsea to sigh and turn away from me.

"It's alright Mark, you don't have to tell me if you don't want to." She said quietly. I could tell she was disappointed.

I felt as if I should've said something to try and make her feel better since I seemed to have let her down but I'm not exactly the greatest when it comes to situations like this so I decided not to say anything further. I shifted my attention back to the rain hitting the rooftop and found myself falling asleep.

The next morning rather than waking up to the sound of Taro banging on the door with that cane of his I instead found myself awoken to the booming sound of thunder coming from outside. I sat up as a flash of lighting light up the room for a moment before it once again fell dark.

As I looked over at Chelsea another rumble of thunder roared from the sky, waking her up.

"Huh, what was that?" She asked wearily as she sat up and rubbed her eyes.

I was about to answer but instead I found myself laughing at her terribly funny bed head.

"What is it? What's wrong?" She asked nervously.

"It's… it's your hair." I answered as I continue to laugh.

She placed her hands on her head and began to feel her hair for a moment before looking at me with her eyebrows lowered angrily. "Stop it Mark, it's not funny."

I honestly tried to stop laughing but I knew that Chelsea wasn't as angry as she looked and simply continued to laugh.

"Come on Mark, stop it." She said as she raised her voice.

Seeing as I wasn't going to stop anytime soon she decided to give me a small push. It wasn't too hard but enough to send me over the edge of the bed and onto the floor.

"Oh geez, are you alright Mark?" She asked as she leaned over and looks down at me, her tone sounding rather concerned.

"Yeah, I'm fine." I replied as I began to push myself off the ground.

"Good, I, uh, mean that'll teach you to make fun of my hair." She said trying her hardest to sound all pouty.

We stared at each other quietly for a moment until another rumble of thunder shook the house, startling Chelsea enough to make her to fall out of bed as well and right on top of me.

Is it me or does this seem familiar?

She pushed herself and looked down at me before laughing.

"Aw, I'm sorry Mark." She apologized as she got off of me.

"It's alright." I told her as I sat up. "It was my fault anyway for laughing at your hair, even if it is really messed up."

She tried to push her hair down to keep it in place but it just kept popping back up. "I guess it is pretty messed up... Think I can barrow your hat again to keep it in place?"

"If you really want to you can but I don't see why you'd need it. No one else is going to see it today since it's storming too hard to go outside." I replied. "Besides, I kind of like it that way."

She laughed as she glanced over at the window while brushing the hair out of her eyes. "Yeah, I guess you're right."

"So what are we going to do today then?" I asked as I stood up.

"I don't know." She answered as she got up and took a seat on the edge of the bed. "Do you know what time it is?"

I walked over to the window and looked outside to try and make a guess but the rain was coming down too hard that I could barely see five feet away. "I don't know. It probably would've been easier to tell if Taro dropped by."

"This house could have at least had a clock in it." She complained.

"Yeah and maybe a few working lights." I added as I looked up at the broken light fixture placed in the middle of the ceiling.

"Well at least we have each other." She said.

Boy did that make me nervous.

"W-what do you mean?" I asked with nervousness in my voice probably noticeable.

"Well I mean we can talk with each other or something you know? I mean it'll give us something to do." She explained.

Oh, yeah, that's much better than what I had in mind.

"Why? What were you thinking of?" She asked curiously when I didn't respond.

"Oh, uh, nothing." I answered nervously. "Nothing at all."

She giggled again. "It's alright Mark, I'm just teasing you."

"Oh, heh heh, alright. Well what do you want to talk about then?" I asked as I took a seat beside her.

"Hm, I'm not really sure." She said as she started to think for a moment. "Did we ever tell each other why we wanted to travel?"

"I think we might have back on the boat." I replied.

"Oh... well why don't we just tell each other again anyway. I really don't remember what you said." She told me.

"Oh, alright then. Well I was really just bored with my life back in the city. I didn't have a job or anything there for me and thought I'd just take a trip to see what was out here for me." I explained. "What about you?"

"Oh you know, pretty much the same." She began. "I didn't really like my life in the city all too much so I decided to just get up and leave, and well here I am, or rather _we _are."

"Yeah, I guess this is where we are now… I wonder if we'll ever get found out here or see the city again…." I said.

"Now why would you want that Mark?" She asked. "We both wanted to leave there and we got what we wanted. I mean we've only been on this island for three days but I feel like with a little work we can make this place feel much better than the city."

"Well I guess you do have a point, I mean it really is pretty nice here but we can't possible stay here forever can we?" I asked.

"Why can't we? We everything we need here, food, a home." She replied.

"I know but don't you think it's a little weird just being here with one other person and another family?" I asked to try and explain myself.

"Aw, what's the matter Mark? Don't you like me?" She asked jokingly as she nudged my arm.

There she goes making me nervous again.

"Well, yeah, I mean of course I like you…" I paused for a moment. "I-I mean in the friend way of course."

"Awe, I'm just teasing you again Mark." She giggled, nudging me again as she covered her mouth to conceal her laughter.

"Oh, okay." I said, trying my hardest to not sound bothered by her previous comment.

I paused for another moment.

"Hey Chelsea?"

She looked over at me. "Yeah Mark?"

"How come you got upset last night when I didn't answer your question?" I asked.

I hoped I wouldn't make her upset by asking.

"Oh, it's nothing Mark. Nothing at all." She answered as she began to slowly look away from me and down at the floor.

Well there goes that wish.

"Are you sure?" I asked.

She nodded her head. "It's nothing Mark. You don't want to hear about it, it's stupid."

"Sure I do! I mean, now that we live together we should try to help each other, right?" I asked.

She sighed and looked at me. "Well, it's just that I've never been called cute by anyone unless they were just trying to mess with me. I wanted to know if you were being serious or not… that's all…"

I took a deep breath. "If… if it makes you feel better I was being serious when I said you looked cute. Honest."

She began to smile as she looked back up at me. Her eyes lit up. "You're right Mark, that does make me feel better."

She then proceeded to lean over and give me a hug. I obviously began to blush as she did so.

"Thanks Mark." She said as she pulled away from me.

"No problem." I replied. "So, what else do you want to talk about?"

She started to think again for a moment. "I'm not sure. How about you decide this time?"

"Alright." I said before briefly stopping. "How about our families?"

"Our, our families…?" She asked sounding nervous.

"Yeah, what they were like and such." I clarified.

"Oh, ok. Can yo- how about you go first." She said, quickly cutting herself off midsentence for some reason.

"Well mine was pretty average. I had this annoying little sister that would sometimes get on my nervous and my parents could sometimes be unbearable but I managed to love them anyway. I moved out of the house about a year ago and haven't talked to them as much since then. They're probably wondering how I'm doing on my trip. I guess they never would imagine I wound up here." I ended with a laugh though Chelsea still seemed bothered by something. "What about yours?"

"Oh, well my family… my family was, well… well they were… um, how do I explain this…" She began.

I listened as she continued to struggle with her words, much like I did before when she asked me if she was cute. There was obviously something about this topic that was upsetting to her.

"So what's your favorite color?" I quickly asked hoping that changing the subject would make her feel better.

"W-what?" She asked, probably confused at the unexpected change.

"Your favorite color." I asked again. "Mine's blue, like my hat."

"Oh, well, okay." She said as she became less tense. "Mines red I guess, like my bandana."

I started to laugh. "Well look at that, we both like to wear our favorite colors."

She joined me in laughing. "Yeah, I guess we do."

Looks like it did help.

The two of us continued to spend our rainy day stuck inside by talking about other little things like what some of our favorite things were and such. Sure, it isn't the best way to spend a day but it worked for us. Eventually we both started to get hungry and took the fish Felicia had prepared out of the cabinet, only to find it had gotten quite cold, though I guess we should have expected that. Once we're done we decided to call it a day and crawled into bed. Chelsea almost immediately fell asleep but I still had a few things on my mind.

I wanted to know why she got so upset at the thought of her family. Did she not like them or something? But more importantly I started to wonder if anyone would eventually stumble upon this island anytime soon. I know I made it sound like I didn't mind staying here with her but we really couldn't stay on this island forever could we?

Could we?


	7. Merchant and Son

"_Mark… it's time to get up."_

I feel Chelsea gently nudging me awake as I slowly begin to open my eyes. I feel pretty tired but I guess that's understandable since I was up quite late last night thinking about whether someone will ever find us out here on this island. I sit up and begin to get out of bed along with Chelsea as the sound of Taro banging on the door with his cane fills the room. I grab my hat off its hanger and place it on before I open the door.

"Good morning Taro." I greet.

"Morning." He greets. "Time to get to work you two." Geez he's so straightforward.

He starts to walk away and as soon as Chelsea comes up beside me with her bandana now tied around her head we start to follow him.

"Hm, looks like your crops are growing just right so far." Taro tells us as we approach him.

Chelsea and I walk over to his side and stare out in the field. We look over at the area we planted our seeds and I couldn't help but feel happy when I saw the mounds of dirt that had sat there for the past few days now had small little sprouts sticking out of them.

Chelsea and I continue to admire our small amount of progress until Taro begins to stare angrily at us.

"What do you two think you're doing?" He shouts at us.

I look at him nervously. "N-nothing just looking at our crops…"

"Well if you want to keep staring at them you're going to have to water them or they're going to die!" He shouts angrily likely due to our apparent 'stupidity' as he'd probably put it if I asked. "Why do you two continue to stand there? Get to work!"

Due to my fear of getting struck on the head with his cane again I find myself soon scurrying over towards the house to fetch that watering can of ours. I won't lie, I kind of feel bad leaving Chelsea alone with Taro when he's mad but then again it is for only a moment. When I return I run out to the field and tilt the can over the first sprout to water it but only three drops come out.

"Looks like you need to refill it." Taro tells me in a somewhat calmer tone.

I walk over to the river nearby and dip the can in to fill it with water. As I bring it back up I pause for a moment and find myself listening to the sound of the river as the current flows past me. I soon begin to think that Chelsea was right; maybe it would be nice to stay here. I stand up and I'm about to turn around when I suddenly see that mysterious figure out in the forest trees in front of me again. Before I have a chance to see what it is it quickly disappears behind the trees and into the shadows again and I resume walking back towards the field, though now I feel a little uneasy.

As I walk past Taro he raises his eyebrow as he looks at me. "Something wrong there Mark?"

"Yeah, you seem a little uneasy now." Chelsea tells me.

I shake my head at them. "I'm fine, just a little tired that's all."

Before they can say anything else I continue towards the field and start to water the crops. Once finished I walk back over to Taro and Chelsea.

"So what now?" I ask. "The crops are watered for today and we already cleaned the field."

"I want to examine that building over there." Taro replies as he tilts his cane towards the far north corner of the field.

I turn around and look across the field to see a large building sitting on the other end of the field behind the house. Never saw that before.

"Come along you two." Taro says as he begins to walk towards it.

Chelsea and I start to closely follow behind him and when we get to the front of the building Taro taps on its door with the end of his cane and it opens with an eerie creaking sound. The three of us step inside onto the dirt covered floor and look around to find two feeding troughs in the center of the room, a large watering trough minus the water to the side, and a feed dispenser coming out of the wall on the other side.

"Looks like there's also a barn here." Taro says before mumbling. "Now if only we had some animals here…"

"How nice, now if we can just get some animals we'll have a real farm. Wouldn't that be nice Mark?" Chelsea asks me.

"I guess that be pretty nice." I reply. It'd probably make our job even harder though since my only experience in caretaking is an unfortunate amount of goldfish swimming around in the city sewers now. Not to mention it'd require seeing more of Taro… and that cane of his...

Suddenly Elliot runs into the barn and rests his hands on his knees while he takes a few breaths for moment.

"What is it Elliot?" Taro asks.

"There… there are some new arrivals on the island grandpa." He tells us.

The three of us immediately become surprised.

"New arrivals?" Taro asks.

"Yeah, mom and Natalie are with them right now. There at the beach." He tells us.

Taro begins to walk out of the barn before turning back at us. "What are you three standing around for? Let's go! We have to go and meet them."

Elliot starts to follow behind Taro but Chelsea and I remain in the barn.

"Oh isn't this exciting Mark? Someone's stumbled upon our island already." She says to me happily.

"Yeah, maybe they can help us." I reply.

* * *

The two of us begin our walk to the beach and when we arrive we find Taro and his family standing in front of a man and a child with small boat next to the dock behind them, they're likely the new arrivals Elliot was talking about. They both look sort of oriental and the man is wearing a purple colored vest with a red belt and a white shirt underneath along with brown pants and a headband and for some reason is keeping his eyes shut. The child, unlike the man with him, has his eyes open revealing his brown eyes and is wearing a small open brown vest with a light green shirt underneath with darker colored pants and a brown headband just like the man beside him.

"What took you two slowpokes?" Taro asks me and Chelsea.

"Nothing, I guess we're just slow walkers." I reply jokingly, taking a step back from him in case he tries to hit me.

Taro just stares at me angrily instead.

"Mark, Chelsea, you must me our new friends." Felicia says to us.

"Hello there." The man begins. "My name is Chen and this here is my son Charlie."

"Nice to meet you Chen, Charlie." I say.

"It's nice to meet you both." Chelsea says.

"It's a pleasure to meet you both." Chen replies.

"So Chen, what brings you two out to this part of the ocean?" Taro asks.

"Charlie and I are merchants you see. We had just decided to close up and sell our shop out in the city and were travelling around to find a new place to set up shop. We got a little off course in the storm yesterday and wound up sailing here this morning since it was the closest island we could find." He explains.

"Yeah it was pretty rough out there yesterday but we made it here in one piece." Charlie says.

"My, that sounds like quite a journey." Felicia says.

"Yeah is your ship ok?" Elliot asks.

"Our ship is fine." Chen replies. "As I was saying with setting up my shop somewhere new this seems to be the perfect place to start a new business now that I look at it." Now that he looks at what? I haven't even seen him open his eyes yet.

"Here? Are you serious?" Natalie asks though I can't really tell if she's trying to come off as rude or not. "This place is deserted except for us."

"I can see that but I can also see the potential in this place." He tells her.

"What do you mean?" Elliot asks.

"If I set up a shop here and get in touch with some of my business associates I'm sure that word of this island of yours will soon spread and more travelers and merchants will begin to show up." Chen explains.

"That would be wonderful." Chelsea exclaims happily.

Taro thinks for a moment. "Hm, you wouldn't happen to know anyone who would be interested in buying some of the things we harvest here would you?"

"Harvest?" Chen asks a little curiously.

"You see Chelsea and Mark here are our very own farmers." Taro tells him. "Selling some of their hard work would be a great way for us to earn some money."

"Yeah that'd be a great way for us to…" I say before pausing for a moment. "Wait, a way for _all_ of us to make money off of _me and Chelsea's_ hard work?"

"All I mean is that we could use any money you to make to fund repairs for this island." Taro explains.

"Yeah, don't be so greedy." Natalie tells me. How about you stop being so cold first?

"That sounds like a great idea." Chen says. "I'm sure I can find someone who will buy whatever you all can make."

"This is just great." Felicia says.

"Yeah but where are we going to stay?" Charlie asks.

"There are plenty of houses here." Taro says before turning around. "Let's go pick one out for you."

The seven of us begin to follow Taro out towards the town area and then stop in the middle of it with him as he looks at all the houses.

"How about this one?" He asks as he walks up to the one next to the well.

"It looks perfect." Chen replies as he walks up beside Taro.

Taro chuckles a little under his breath. "I know a good house when I see one."

"But it's all boarded up." Charlie complains. "How are we supposed to get inside?"

Taro turns to me, Chelsea, and Elliot. "Chelsea, Elliot, Mark, you three know what to do."

Elliot thinks for a moment. "Oh yeah, come on guys, we'll get this thing open in no time."

I grumble for a moment before joining Chelsea and Elliot in front of the door and the three of us once again start to remove the planks blocking the door.

"This is perfect, just perfect." Chen says once we've finished removing the last plank. "Why don't you go and check out the inside Charlie?"

"Can do dad." Charlie says enthusiastically before wandering inside.

"Now onto business matters." Chen says as he faces us, more specifically me and Chelsea. "You two are the farmers here correct?"

"Yeah that's us." Chelsea answers.

"Since you two are farmers I'll be sure to stock up on seeds for you two when I return to town." He tells us.

"Hm, can you do anything about getting us some animals?" I ask. "We also have a small barn."

Chen thinks for a moment. "Yes, I know a nice family of animal suppliers. I'll talk to them about considering starting a business here next time I see them."

"This is working out so well." Taro says. "Now with you here I'm sure this island will be a wonderful place to stay. We can't thank you enough Chen."

"It's always a pleasure to help out others but I also must thank you all as well for giving me and Charlie a new place to stay." Chen replies.

"I'm sure this island will be a wonderful place to stay in no time." Felicia says.

"Yeah, if we work together I'm sure we can get this place running." Chelsea says.

"You all have so much enthusiasm. But you'll have to excuse me for awhile, I think I'll use this time to go and return to the city to find some potential buyers for your shipments." Chen says.

"You're leaving so soon?" Felicia asks a little saddened.

Chen laughs a little. "Don't worry; I know my way back to the mainland from here. I should be back before sunrise tomorrow. Though, I will need someone to look after Charlie for the rest of the day while I'm gone."

Charlie comes back out of the house. "It's pretty nice in there dad. There are some shelves, a counter and even some beds for us."

"I'm sure we'll enjoy our stay here but before we can start any business here I have to return back to the city for a few things." Chen tells him.

"But what about me?" Charlie asks.

"Mark and I can watch him for you." Chelsea tells Chen. Wait, what? Don't I get a say in this?

"What?" I ask.

"Thank you Chelsea, I can see I truly stumbled upon a great island today." Chen says.

"Well I hope you have a safe trip back to the city." Felicia says.

"I'm sure I will. I'll see you all tomorrow then." Chen tells us before focusing his attention on Charlie. "Be kind to Chelsea and Mark now Charlie."

"Don't worry dad, I will." Charlie tells him.

All of us follow Chen back to the beach and wave and say goodbye as he sails off to the city. Now with him and Charlie here it seems that we truly might be able to stay on this island forever. Charlie… that just reminded me that I have to watch him with Chelsea for the rest of the day now…

* * *

**A/N: I'm really starting to enjoy writing this story now, it's slowly becoming my one of my favorite written stories. I hope you all enjoy this chapter so please R&R if you do.**


	8. Wonderfuls, Fish, and Figures

Now that Chen's ship is off in the distance Taro and his family depart back to their house as Chelsea and I turn to Charlie who stands between us.

"So I guess you'll be spending the day with us huh?" I ask a little nervously.

"Yeah, looks like it man." He replies.

"Great…" I mutter.

"Oh lighten up Mark. It'll be fun." Chelsea says happily.

I sigh. "If you say so."

"So what do you guys want to do?" Charlie asks.

"I don't know, Wanna play Hide and seek or something?" I ask.

He gives me a little glare. "I'm not that young..." Your size seems to tell me otherwise.

"Come on guys, let's head back to the farm, I'm sure we can find something to do there… or is it a ranch?" She asks.

"I don't know." I reply.

"Hm, I'm sure we'll figure it out eventually." She says with that cute laugh of hers once again. "Come on Charlie, follow us."

He nods his head. "Alright."

The three of us leave the beach and begin to walk back towards our farm house. When we reach the house I open the door and let Chelsea and Charlie in before stepping in myself.

"So this is where you guys live?" Charlie asks as he looks around.

"Yeah, we've lived here ever since we got knocked overboard this boat we were travelling on." Chelsea tells him.

"Oh, so were you guys on your honeymoon or something?" He asks.

My eyes almost pop out of my head at that question. He thinks we're married?

"You think we're married?" I ask him rather loudly.

He shifts his eyes around. "Well yeah, I mean you two do live together and all."

"Oh Charlie, Mark and I aren't married. We just live and sleep together that's all." Chelsea tells him seeming to be unaffected and maybe even a little happy by his comment before. Don't tell him that!

Charlie looks behind me and Chelsea at the bed behind us before looking at us smiling. "Oh, I get it now." Oh goddess is he really thinking THAT?

I look at him stupefied.

Chelsea just laughs at him. "It's not like that Charlie. We're just good friends right Mark?"

"Yeah we're just friends, _nothing _else." I tell him. Maybe that could change someday though… Wait what did I just think?

"Alright, if that's what ever you say guys say." He says. I doubt he believes us though.

"Why are you even thinking of stuff like that anyway?" I ask.

"I don't know." He says innocently. "So what's there to do around here?"

I think for a moment. "There really isn't much to do around here now that I think about it."

"What else do you guys have here?" He asks.

"We have an empty barn and a field, that's pretty much it." I tell him.

"Hm, let's go outside. I'm sure we can find something to do out there." He says.

"Maybe we can. Come on Mark." Chelsea says.

Shrugging I follow the two as they leave the house. Once back outside I follow Chelsea as she leads Charlie out to the field.

"WOAH! That's a big boulder man." He shouts.

Chelsea and I look at him confused.

"Boulder?" I ask.

"Yeah, over there!" He replies as he points up towards the river.

We look at where he's pointing and see a large boulder up by some trees at the end of the field blocking a path.

"Never saw that before…" Chelsea says.

Before we know it Charlie begins to run towards the boulder and Chelsea and I soon follow. We stand behind him as he leans against it and taps his hand against it.

"Um, what are you doing?" I ask.

"Checking to see how hard it is." He replies. It's like a mini Taro at work…

"Why?" Chelsea asks curiously.

"To see if we can break it." He tells us.

"Interesting…" I mutter.

"Do you guys have a hammer?" He asks.

"We do back at the house." I tell him. "Why?"

"Good, now all we'll need is a wonderful." He tells us.

"Wonderful? I don't think we have any of those." Chelsea says.

"Yeah, what's a wonderful?" I ask. Lemme guess, he's going to he say they're wonderful in three… two…

"Wonderfuls man, they're well… wonderful!" He replies. "They're these little colorful magic rocks. My dad's been teaching me how to attach them to tools like hammers and axes so they can be better."

"Really?" I ask a little intrigued.

"Yeah, and I'm sure if we could get the right one for your hammer we could break this rock." He tells us.

"Well which wonderful is the right one?" Chelsea asks.

"Well… I don't really know yet." Charlie replies. "My dad hasn't… err… taught me that yet…"

"You forgot didn't you?" I ask basing my assumption off of the way he spoke.

"Yeah you got me." He says playfully. "Not that it really matters though since you guys don't have any wonderfuls here anyway."

"Good point." Chelsea says with a laugh.

I soon find myself laughing a little as well out of courtesy.

"So what else are we going to do?" Charlie asks.

I look up at the sky to see the sun just barley ready to start falling back behind the horizon. "I'm not sure."

"We could go and see what Taro and them are doing." Chelsea suggests.

"Beats standing around here." Charlie says.

"Alright, let's go." I tell them.

* * *

The three of us walk through the field and down the road to Taro's house. We stand in front of it as Chelsea knocks on the door and within seconds Felicia comes over and opens it.

"Chelsea, Mark, Charlie, what are you three doing here?" She asks.

"We can't think of anything to do so we decided to see what was going on here." Chelsea replies.

"Oh not much is going on around here. Taro and Elliot are still out at the beaching fishing so it's just mean and Natalie here right now." She tells us. "Oh but please, come in."

She steps aside and the three of us step in and see Natalie organizing a few things on one of the shelves.

"Natalie, we have company." Felicia tells her.

"Like I couldn't hear all of you at the door." She mutters rather rudely before turning around.

"What's her problem?" I hear Charlie whisper.

"I heard that you little runt!" Natalie snaps.

"Natalie! That's no way to treat our company." Felicia tells her.

"Whatever." Natalie mutters.

"Well no hard feelings right?" Felicia asks with a nervous laugh.

"Sure, I'm not mad." Charlie says as Natalie rolls her eyes. I really do wonder what her problem is.

"So when do you think Taro and Elliot are going to get back?" Chelsea asks.

"Right now." I hear Taro say as the door opens and him and Elliot enter.

"Yeah, I think I'm starting to get better at fishing since I'm starting to catch our dinners faster." Elliot says sounding rather triumphant.

"Oh quit bragging Elliot, it's not that amazing." Natalie scoffed.

Elliot stares angrily at Natalie and looks like he's about to argue back but Felicia seems to give him a look and he becomes less tense.

"Whatever…" He mutters.

"So I take it we're all having fish?" Charlie asks.

"Till we can start getting another source of food it's all we can eat." Taro tells him.

"Hm, well I'm sure my dad could probably help get us more food when he gets back from the city." Charlie says.

"Why you and your father are just a helpful pair aren't you?" Felicia asks somewhat rhetorically as she begins to prepare the fish Elliot brought in over the stove.

We all spent the rest of early and mid evening listening to Charlie as he talks to us about all the work him and his father have done before they decided to come here. He tells us about how they ran a very successful small business in the city until Chen apparently felt that the city wasn't right for them and decided to pack up and leave. As he went on with his stories though I found myself every now and then glancing over at Natalie as she continued to look disgusted with him and constantly roll her eyes. I just don't understand how someone can be so cold and unfriendly around everyone all the time but for now it's probably best that I just keep my distance.

Once we were finished Chelsea, Charlie and I said our goodbyes before we head outside. Its still a little early outside and I think it's that time people refer to as the 'twilight hours'. Too bad Taro wasn't around to confirm that or not, or maybe that's a good thing.

We start to walk back to the farmhouse but Chelsea's soon stops after only a few steps.

"Wait Mark I just thought about something." She tells me.

"What is it?" I ask.

"Well since we still have to watch Charlie till the morning what are we going to do about sleeping arrangements?" She asks.

I look down at Charlie. "That's a good question."

"No way am I sleeping alone!" He tells us. "I don't know what comes out on this island at night." Typical kid being scared of monsters. Can't say I blame him though, I'd probably be scared too if I were him.

"Aw don't worry Charlie; it's not that scary here." Chelsea says as she crouches down to his level.

"I-I'm not s-scared." Charlie said as an owl from the forest nearby began hoot. That just sets the mood.

I look out at the forest trees and once again see that figure from the past few days out there only this time it turns around and I make out a human like shape that's eyes suddenly begin to glow red causing me to fall back.

"What the heck is that?" I shout.

Chelsea and Charlie look out into the trees and see the same figure and Charlie suddenly screams and grabs onto Chelsea.

"IT'S GOING TO GET ME!" He shouts.

The figure suddenly fades away at the sound of Charlie's scream.

"What… what was that?" I ask.

I look over at Chelsea and watch as she gives Charlie a hug while he begins to almost cry. As much as I hate to say it I sort of wish I was him right now, lucky kid. Oh my Goddess… I really have to stop with these thoughts.

"It's going to get me!" He shouts again.

"Calm down Charlie. It's alright." Chelsea tells him.

The door to Taro's house opens and him and the rest of his family run out.

"What on earth was with all that yelling?" He rather ironically shouts.

"There… there was something out there in the forest." I tell them as I slowly get up to my feet.

"It's going to get us all! It's some sort of monster!" Charlie shouts.

"What did it look like?" Elliot asks.

"It was big with scary red eyes and a bunch of arms with sharp claws!" Charlie tells them. Yup, typical kid for you. "It's going to eat us!"

Taro raises his eyebrow at us.

"Calm down Charlie." Chelsea says to him calmly.

"That's not what it looked like." I tell them. "It just looked like a normal person but it had glowing red eyes and then it suddenly vanished."

"You got us all worked up over a some person person who probably wasn't even there?" Natalie asks angrily.

"No, it was out there." I argue. "All three of us saw it."

"It's true." Chelsea says as she looks over at them.

"That's strange. I thought this island was abandoned." Felicia says.

"Hm, whatever it was I doubt it can do us any harm if it is indeed a person since the bridge appears to be out." Taro says.

"Yeah, I guess we should all just get to bed huh?" I ask.

Taro nods his head. "Let's not worry about it. After all maybe it truly was your minds playing tricks on you."

"Yeah… but just to be safe do you think we can lock the door tonight?" Elliot asks nervously.

"Coward…" Natalie says quietly under her breath.

"I heard that!" Elliot snaps.

"Oh Elliot look, that thing is back out in the forest again." Natalie says trying to sound frightened as she points out into the forest.

"WHERE?" Both Elliot and Charlie shout.

Natalie just laughs.

"Cut that out Natalie, you're scaring Charlie." Felicia says.

"Fine…" Natalie mutters as she walks back into the house.

Felicia and Elliot return inside as well and Taro nods his head at me before soon following.

"Come on Charlie." I say as I approach him and Chelsea. "I'll take him over to his house and stay there for the night."

"Really?" Chelsea asks as she lets go of Charlie and stands up.

I nod my head. "Yeah."

"But what about that monster?" Charlie asks.

"I'll protect you from it if we see it." I tell him before looking at Chelsea. "Will you be alright alone tonight?"

"Yeah I'll be alright." She replies.

"Good, well come on Charlie we better get to bed." I tell him. "See you in the morning then Chelsea."

"See you then Mark." She says with a wave before she starts walking towards our house.

I take Charlie's hand and walk over to his house and open the door.

"So where are those beds you saw? in here" I ask.

"In the back." He tells me.

He leads me around the counter that sits in the middle of the room and through the doorway into the next room. He lets go of my hand and jumps onto one of the small beds in the room that appear to be closer to the ground than the one at my house. They seem sort of like mats with blankets on them.

"I call this one!" He shouts.

"All right whatever." I reply.

I sit down on the bed next to his and take off my hat and place it on the ground nearby. I look over at the Charlie and am surprised to see him lying face down on the bed already asleep. What a strange kid, Chen must have his hands full with him. I look up at the ceiling and start to wonder how Chelsea must feel right now being all alone without me now. Damn, I thought I told myself to stop thoughts like these…

* * *

**A/N: No time to write an AN cept for this... and that... and that...**


	9. Harvest Ranch and Sunny Island

**A/N: Sorry for not updating this in over two weeks, I really am but I've been busy with getting my other stuff written among other things. I hope this chapter makes up for it, it is the second largest sole thing I've ever typed so far. Oh and sorry for any mistakes, I have no time to edit this at the moment.**

* * *

"_Hey! Hey Mark! Hey Mark get up!"_

"Ugh, Charlie be quiet!" I shout as I slowly open my eyes and take the pillow out from underneath my head and swing it lightly at Charlie who's stand beside my bed.

"Hey, come on man it's like eight in the morning." He replies as he blocks the pillow. "It's time to get up."

I drop the pillow on the ground and sit down on the edge of my bed and rub my eye for a moment.

"Yeah whatever." I mutter. Wait a minute, eight o'clock? "Where's Taro?"

Charlie shrugs. "I dunno I only woke up a while ago. I didn't see him anywhere when I stepped outside."

"You went outside and didn't tell me?" I ask. Geez listen to me, I sound like his parent.

"Well yeah, I'm not that young." He reminds me.

"Whatever." I mutter again as I jump off the bed.

"So what are we gonna do?" He asks. "My dad's still not back yet."

"I don't know." I answer as I take my hat off the ground and place it on my head how I like it. "I should probably go and check on Chelsea first before I do anything with you."

"Aw, worried about your girlfriend?" He asks.

My eyes widen. "What? No! I thought I told you we're not dating or anything!"

"Calm down Mark." He tells me as he raises his hands up and backs away from me. "I'm kidding I'm kidding."

I sigh. "Sure you are… I just want to see if she's up or not that's all. Besides we have work to do."

I walk past him into the main room and he begins to follow me as I walk out the door. As I step outside I look over at Taro's house and in through the window to see Elliot, Natalie, and Felicia walking about the house but no Taro. Seeing as he's not there I continue up to the farm house and walk over into the field. I walk up to the sprouts in the soil and crouch down in front of it and gently grab onto one of the leaves branching off of one.

"What are you doing?" Charlie asks curiously.

"Just checking to see if they're wet so I know if Chelsea watered them or not." I tell him.

"That's not weird at all." He remarks. Like you pounding on that rock wasn't? He looks up at the sky for a moment before looking back at me. "So are they wet or what?"

"No." I reply as I let go of the leaf and get up. "I guess she's still asleep or something."

I walk back towards the house and in front of the door with Charlie following closely behind.

A lightly tap on the door. "Hey Chelsea, you in there?"

Charlie and I only wait for about a few seconds until Chelsea comes and opens the door.

"Uh, Mark, what are you doing here?" She asks wearily as she yawns and rubs her eye.

"I just wanted to see if you were up or not." I tell her.

She gives me a tired looking smile. "Aw, that's nice of you."

"Oh, it's nothing really." I tell her a little nervously. "So where's the watering can? I figure I'll go and water the plants while you get ready to come out."

"Just a minute." She replies before she walks over to the tool box and pulls it out. "Here you are." She says as places it in my hands.

"Thanks." I say as I start to walk away with Charlie.

"I'll be out in a minute!" She shouts to us.

I hear the farm house door shut as Charlie and I get to the field and I start to water the plants. While I do I can't help but notice as Charlie continues to constantly eye that large boulder on the other side of the field, crazy kid. When I finish watering all of them I turn around and fall back at the sight of Chelsea standing almost directly behind me.

"Ah, Chelsea you scared me there." I tell her as I look up at her bright shining face that's blocking the sun from my view.

"Heh, sorry about that Mark." She says as she extends her hand out to me and helps me up. "I didn't mean to scare you like that."

"It's alright." I tell her. "No harm done."

She smiles at me. "That's good. So are you all finished her?"

"Yeah I got all of the plants watered for today." I reply.

"Great… So what do we do we do now then?" She asks curiously.

"I don't know. Let's go find Taro; I'm sure he's got something for us to do." I say.

The two of us start to walk towards the town area while Charlie continues to stare at the boulder for a moment before turning around.

"Hey! Wait for me!" He shouts as he starts to run after us.

When the three of us reach the area around Taro's house I notice Felicia walking around in the area nearby and walk over to her.

"Hi Felicia." I greet as the three of us walk up to her.

"Oh, hello you three." She greets back. "What are all of you up to now?"

"Nothing, we're just wondering where Taro is." I reply.

"I believe he's at the beach waiting for Charlie's dad to return." She tells us.

"Alright, thanks." I say.

* * *

She waves goodbye to us as we head towards the beach. When we arrive we notice Taro standing out on the dock at the end of the beach and walk over to him.

"Hey Taro." I greet as we step out on the wooden dock.

He turns around to face us. "Oh hello there. What do you need?"

"Nothing, just wanted to see what you were up to that's all." I reply.

"Yeah and I was also kind of wondering why you didn't stop by this morning." Chelsea tells him.

"I didn't stop by since they're really isn't anything more I can teach you two at the minute." He replies.

"Really?" Chelsea and I both ask in unison.

"Well, yeah." He tells us sounding a little confused seeming to imply his belief that we're stupid or something. "I mean all you'll have to do is water the crops until they're mature and ready to be harvested, that's about it. I might stop by every now and then if I can think of something to teach you but from here on out you're pretty much on your own."

"Really that's great." I say a little happily causing Taro to shoot me an angry look. "I mean the fact that there isn't much work to be done, that's great."

I look back at Chelsea as places her hand over her mouth to try and cover up the fact that she's laughing a little while Taro turns around and mumbles something. After a moment he looks back up at the ocean.

"Hey look, Chen's back." He tells us as he points his cane out towards a boat in the distance.

"Yeah! My dad's back!" Charlie exclaims happily as he jumps up and down a few times.

"What? Were we that bad at watching you?" I ask.

He stops jumping and puts on a little innocent look. "Well it was kind of boring…"

Chelsea seems to laugh again as I roll my eyes. We're on a partially abandoned island, what could he expect?

We all stand on the dock patiently as Chen's ship approaches us at a rather slow speed. When it gets close enough we all take a few steps back as Chen positions it closely to the dock and stops it. After a moment he emerges from the ships cabin carrying two large crates with rounded tops that look like they can be opened and jumps onto the dock.

"Dad, you're back!" Charlie shouts happily as he runs up and hugs his dad.

Chen looks down at him as he continues to carry the two crates in his hands. "It's good to see you too Charlie."

"Hello again Chen." Taro says greets. "What do you have there? Supplies or something?"

"In these crates?" Chen asks rhetorically as he lifts them up a bit. "No, I have quite a few supplies in the ship but these are the shipping bins for the island."

"Shipping bins?" I ask.

Chen laughs a little. "I'll explain when we get to town."

Chen begins to walk towards town and the rest of us follow closely behind him. When we get to town Felicia, Elliot, and Natalie are all standing around the front of their house waiting for us.

"Oh Chen, you're back." Felicia says happily as she claps her hands together. "What's this that you've brought with you?"

Chen walks over near the front of the house and sets the bins down on the ground near the front of their house, removing the top one and placing it to the side. "Like I told Mark at the beach I brought us a pair of shipping bins."

"Shipping bins?" Felicia asks. Glad to see I'm not the only one confused about them.

"Yes, you see whenever you have something you'd like me to have sold out in the city you just have to come and open the bin's top." Chen explains as he opens the top of the bin like a chest. "And place the item in. I'll have it sold on one of ships that will stop by in the evening and you'll get whatever money I get for it."

"So you got merchants to visit the island? That's great." Felicia said happily.

"Well they'll just be stopping by to collect whatever items are in the shipment bins but yes I've gotten some traders to stop by." Chen replies.

"This is just wonderful." Taro remarks.

"The thing is since I'll be busy managing the store I'll need someone to keep track of the items being shipped and how much money is coming in because of it." Chen tells us.

"Oh I'm sure Natalie and Elliot can do that." Felicia says.

"What?" Natalie exclaims angrily while Elliot seems to remain neutral.

"Come on it won't be that hard." Felicia tells her. "Beside you'll have your brother to help you."

Natalie rolls her eyes and crosses her arms around her chest and mumbles something. My guess is that she won't be doing most of the work.

"That reminds me." Chen says as he turns to me and Chelsea. "You two will need a name for your ranch so it'll be easier to sell things from it."

"A name?" I ask as Chen nods his head.

Chelsea places her hand on her head and begins to think. "Hm, what should we name our ranch then?"

I shrug. "I don't know."

She shuts her eyes for a moment seeming to enter deep thought and continues to think for a moment before opening them and looking at me. "How about Harvest Ranch?"

Hm, Harvest Ranch, well it's better than anything I could think of.

I nod my head. "Alright." I say before facing Chen. "We'll go with Harvest Ranch."

"Great, I'll be sure to tell all the traders your choice next time I see them." Chen says.

"So what else did you bring us?" Elliot asks.

"I brought with me enough supplies to start my shop here." He says before pausing for a moment. "Oh and I brought some other things for all of you. I'll need some help getting it off the ship though."

* * *

Chen, Charlie, Taro, Elliot, Chelsea, and I all return back to the beach and Chen's boat. He goes back into the cabin of the boat and he comes back out with two small crates. He hands Taro and Elliot one of them before giving me and Chelsea the other one. He tells us that they contain a few things we could house in our houses and tells us that Charlie and he can handle the store supplies by themselves. Seeing as our work was done I pick up our crate and Chelsea and I begin to return back to our house. When we arrive she opens the door for me and I step in and place the crate down on the ground.

"So what's inside?" Chelsea asks.

"I don't know. Let's find out." I reply.

I grab onto the lid and begin to pull it off which isn't very hard since it's not sealed tightly. Chelsea and I look inside to find a calendar, a clock, and some light bulbs that are surprisingly undamaged.

"Aw, Chen is so thoughtful." Chelsea says in a sweet voice.

"Yeah, this is just what we needed." I remark.

Chelsea takes the calendar out of the crate and brings it over to the wall on her side of our bed and places it on the wall using a small little tack it came with.

"There we are." She says a little triumphantly as she adjusts the calendar so it's level. "So what day is it?"

I think for a moment. Let's see, we were on the boat on the first, found this island on the second…

"It's the seventh." I answer.

She looks at the calendar before turning to me. "Hm, well we don't have anything to mark that down but oh well."

I reach into the crate and pull out the clock and start to walk towards the table while I fiddle around with the complex alarm controls on the back. "Now all we have to do is set the alarm to six and this thing can take the place of Taro in the morning."

Once I get the alarm set I place the clock on the table and look over at Chelsea who's standing beside the crate with a light bulb in her hand while she looks up at the lighting fixture in the middle of the ceiling with her mouth open seeming to be puzzled by something.

"What's wrong?" I ask as I walk towards her.

She shakes her head and looks at me. "Nothing, I was just wondering how we're suppose to replace the lights up there."

I look up at the lighting fixture above us and notice how high up it is. "That's a good question."

She rests her hand on her head again and thinks for a moment. "Hm… you could lift me up there or something."

"Lift you up?" I ask a little skeptically. Not to say she looks heavy or anything but I'm pretty scrawny and I doubt I can hold her up for too long.

"Yeah," She replies with a nice warm reassuring smile. "I'm sure you can do it."

I give her a little edgy look for a moment but that smile of hers is just so hypnotic. "Alright, let's give it a shot."

She hands me two light bulbs before she takes another one out of the crate and walks behind me.

"Crouch down." She tells me.

I comply with her request a little confused and after a brief moment I feel her weight come down on my back and move up over my shoulders. I feel my legs start to shake and I remain still for a moment as my body tries to adjust to her added weight.

"Stand up now." She tells me.

"Yeah… I'll get right on that…" I tell her.

I wrap my arms around her legs as I begin to struggle to lift her up the ground. I shut my eyes as I lift up and soon I feel my legs to straighten out and when I open my eyes I see that I'm now standing up though my legs are still a little shaky. I tilt my head up a bit and watch as Chelsea fixes the light bulb in her hand in place. Once it's in place she holds her hand down in front of my face and motions for something as she continues to look up at the light.

"Hand me another light." She tells me.

"Oh, sorry." I apologize as I lift my hand up slightly and place the bulb in her hands.

She places the bulb in its socket and lowers her hand once more. I place the next light in her hand and she puts it in its socket as well.

"Come on Mark, I need one more." She tells me.

I look at my empty hands and then over at last one at the bottom of the crate nearby. "Yeah, I'm on it."

I slowly inch my way towards the crate and Chelsea looks down at me when she notices we're moving.

"What are you doing Mark?" She asks.

"Getting… the… light…" I tell her as her weight on my shoulders becomes more and more apparent.

Once we're a foot away from the box I start to reach over at the light bulb in it. As I do I feel as Chelsea's weight constantly pushes down on me and my legs start to reach their limit and as soon as my hand touches the bulb they give and I fall down to the ground with Chelsea falling down right on top of me.

"Hm, your body makes a nice cushion." She tells me as she continues to sit on top of me.

"Good… to… know…" I tell her painfully as I lay on the floor face down.

"Heh, I should probably get off now huh?" She asks playfully.

"Yes…" I reply.

She gets off of me and helps me to my feet before she dusts me off while I feel my head continue to spin.

"Sorry about that." She says as she adjusts my bandana. "Aha, there you go. Feel better?"

I try my hardest to focus my vision on her but my heads still a little unbalanced after that fall. "Yeah…"

"That's great." She says as she shuts her eyes and smiles happily at me.

I glace up at the fixture above us and its three lights. "So does this thing work?"

"I don't know, let's find out." She says as she walks over to the light switch by the door.

She flips it on and the room partially lights up except for the one corner of the room by the cabinet without a light.

"Well at least it works." She remarks.

Suddenly there's a knock on the door and she turns to open it while I walk over to her.

"Taro what a surprise." Chelsea says.

"I came over to let you two know we got your shipping bin set up." He tells us.

"Our shipping bin?" I ask.

He nods his head and turns over to the area near the entrance of our ranch. "We decided to have one for the town in front of our house and one just for you two."

"That's nice of you all, thanks." Chelsea says.

"If you two ever need anything just stop by." He says before walking away. What no yelling? No elderly advice? I could get used to this.

I look over at Chelsea and notice as she walks over to our newly set up shipping bin.

"This is nice huh Mark?" She asks as she opens the lid out of curiosity.

"Yeah, I guess things are starting to look up since Chen found us all here." I reply.

"Yeah, we're going to half to work really hard now if we want to make this island a success." She says.

Suddenly these little sparkles appear beside our feet and this little pointed eared person wearing red clothes and a red hat with a yellow puff at the end appears.

"Hi there." He says to us.

I look at him silently with a mixture of surprise and a little bit of fear. I mean come on; he just came out of nowhere, who knows what he can do.

Chelsea on the other hand crouches down and smiles at him. "Hello there."

"I'm sorry for intruding but I couldn't help but over hear that you two are this island's new residents." He tells us.

"Yeah were the islands new residents." Chelsea says.

"That's great." He says happily. "We've been waiting for some new people to show up here for quite some time now."

"There's others on this island?" Chelsea asks curiously.

"Yeah, all the other harvest sprites here, I'm sure they'll be happy to meet you." He tells us.

"So there's other… er, other little guys like you?" I ask as I slowly crouch down.

"Yeah, we harvest sprites live on all the different parts of this island." He tells us. "My name's Noe by the way."

"It's nice to meet you Noe, my name's Chelsea." She tells him.

"Yeah, and I'm Mark." I tell him.

"It's nice to meet you two." He says. "So have you two come up with a new name for the island yet?"

I sigh again. More naming?

"No, we didn't come up with a name yet." Chelsea replies.

"Aw come on, all places need a name." Noe complains.

"Hm, how about Sunny Island." Chelsea suggests. "Since it always seems to be pretty sunny here. Right Mark?"

"Sure that's fine." I reply. I honestly really care though.

"Sunny Island." Noe says before thinking for a moment. "That's great, I'll have to tell everyone right way. I'm sure the Harvest Goddess will love it."

Both Chelsea and my eyes widen.

"H-H-Harvest Goddess?" We both stutter.

Without replying Noe disappears in the same sparkles he came from.

"The… the Harvest Goddess is here?" I ask. "I-I thought she was just a fairytale or something."

"I guess she's not." Chelsea replies back.

We stand up and I just look around for a moment before facing here. "Heh, we should probably tell Taro and them that we've named the island."

"Yeah, Sunny Island, I'm sure they'll love it." Chelsea says.

Sunny Island, something tells me this place isn't going to be so bad.


	10. A Story and a Kiss

**A/N: Chapter 10? Already? Geez for some reason I thought I was only on eight.**

**So I know a lot happens in this chapter but I couldn't find a better place to stick it all than here. I'm fairly certain most of things mentioned here will come up again so pay attention kiddies. **

**Oh yeah, before I forget the Mother 3 Love Theme made me write this.**

* * *

The rest of the seventh and yesterday were pretty simple. After Noe left us Chelsea and I went over to Taro's where everyone was gathered to tell them about what happened. I was a little reluctant to tell them about what happened since I didn't know how the whole "Oh my goddess we just saw a small magic guy who appeared out of nowhere and told us he knows the Goddess" thing would go with them so I let Chelsea do most of the talking as I've started to grow accustom to doing. She explained the whole story to them, or at least as much as we knew, and even though they were a bit skeptical that we really saw some pint sized Harvest Sprite they seemed to welcome the idea of naming this place Sunny Island. I still bet they think we're crazy or something…

Anyhow, after that Chelsea and I returned back to her house and called it a night and went to sleep. Yesterday we got up and watered our plants outside around six when our new alarm clock went off. It's kind of nice that we have an alarm clock waking us up now. If we ever want to sleep in we can just ignore it and not have the fear of getting struck on the head with something wooden and hard. After that we went over to the town area and were forced by Taro to help Chen and Charlie as they set up their shop since he was busy teaching Elliot and a very reluctant Natalie how to keep track of shipments. Chen had some pretty basic stuff with him, such as a few seeds, some simple cooking ingredients, and a few other 'necessities' like what he gave us the other day but he also brought with him food. Yes, FOOD! He was kind enough to give me and Chelsea a few bags full of rice balls, bread loaves, and cold soup. Sure it isn't the best food in the world but hey, it's better than fish every night. We had to deliver some over to Taro's house and once we were done we returned back to our house and organized or food before eating some of it and heading back to bed.

But today seems like it might be a little more, well, interesting. I woke up about two hours ago according to our clock to find that it's another stormy day, damn that Taro for not warning any of us. It's not as bad as the past two times it's stormed but it still seems too harsh for anyone to go outside. Surprisingly, Chelsea didn't get up when our alarm went off and I haven't chosen to wake her up yet. She just looks so cute while she's asleep with her hair all messed up as it rests against her pillow along with the rest of her head.

Oh my Goddess… these thoughts. I know they're true but I really can't like Chelsea already can I? I mean it's only been a little over a week since we met and I can't seriously be attracted to her yet, right? Oh but she's so cute… damn it, I have to stop thinking like this. Oh, I know! I'll wake her up, if I wake her up then she can talk to me and I can stop thinking about her like this.

I get up from my spot on the edge of our table I've been sitting on while I've kept looking back between the rain outside and Chelsea and walk over to her.

"Hey Chelsea..." I begin quietly as I approach the bedside.

Suddenly there's an incredibly loud rumble of thunder and Chelsea almost immediately shoots up from her spot and causes me to fall back from surprise. So much for my peaceful approach.

"What was that?" She asks nervously as she looks around at the ceiling.

"Thunder…" I reply as I rub my newly pained back. I probably should have mentioned it still pains me from when Chelsea fell on top of me a few days ago.

She looks down at me. "Oh I'm sorry Mark, did I scare you?"

"N-No." I answer nervously as I stand up and try to recompose myself. "You didn't scare me, not at all."

"Then why were you on the floor then? Hm?" She asks playfully.

"Oh, well I was just… well, er…" I stutter out.

"Oh I'm just kidding Mark." She tells me with a little laugh as she removes the sheets covering her and gets out of bed. "It's alright, I know I startled you."

Great, now she thinks she can scare you… way to go Mark.

"So it's raining pretty hard out there huh?" She asks as she walks over to the window and looks out at the rain.

"Yeah, I guess we're stuck again… together…" I reply nervously. Yup, this is _definitely _better than when I was thinking about her while she slept.

"Aw, are you still not used to living with me yet?" She asks in her playful bubbly voice as she approaches me.

I swear I want to smack that cute little face of hers so maybe she'll hate me and stop talking to me like that but how could I do such a thing, she's… so… beautiful…

"Well?" She asks.

"Well… I… err." Here we go again…

She flashes me a smile. "Oh it's alright Mark I understand. I find it a little weird to you know, living with a stranger. But it's kind of relaxing knowing it's someone who doesn't hate me and won't hurt me for once."

"Wha-What?" I ask.

Her eyes widen a little out of embarrassment. "Oh, did I just… Oh that's not what I meant to say, not what I meant at all…" She says as she shakes her head and sits down on the edge of her side of the bed.

I look at her closely as she buries her face in her hands as she continues to sit down on the edge of her side of the bed. I lean a little towards her as I hear her begin to mutter something as she starts to shake her head a little more erratically. It's kind of depressing this little scene here, I mean there's no sound aside from her muttering and the rain that's falling against the roof and window, not to mention I forgot to switch the lights on.

And that's when I hear her start to cry.

Her body begins to shake a little as she begins to cry and before I know it I start to walk up to her and sit beside her as I place my arm around her. A risky move.

"Chelsea, are you alright?" I ask quietly.

She drops her hands down and rests her arms between her knees though she continues to stare at the ground with her eyes open allowing the tears sliding slowly down her face to fall to down onto the floor.

"Chelsea?" I ask again.

She simply buries her face in her hands again.

I look down at the floor curiously as I begin to think about her words for a moment.

"Chelsea, do… do you think I'm going to hurt you?" I ask with a sense of guilt at the idea that she could even be thinking that.

She shakes her head.

"Then what's wrong?" I ask.

She keeps crying for a moment before looking up at me. "It's… it's just that I've never lived with someone like you…"

I look at her curiously, I mean what is that suppose to mean? "What do you mean?"

"Everyone Mark… Everyone I've ever lived with has hurt me Mark…" She tells me.

I became both startled and upset by that revelation.

"My family… my old roommate…" She continues. "All of them have hurt me somehow… M-My parents used to always abuse and hit me, and then when I finally had enough and decided to move out I got the worst roommate ever… He never did anything and would always yell at me… Then when he hit me I decided to leave and ended up here... with you."

I look at her silently.

"My… my parents… they… they just kept hitting me… and hitting me… and… and… and then my dad…" She chokes out.

She doesn't continue and instead began to cry even harder than before.

I stare at her for a minute as she continues to cry hysterically before I look back down at the ground and look around at my feet for a moment before starting to slowly rub my arm around her up and down. "Chelsea… I… I had no idea."

She keeps crying for another moment before she throws herself at me and places her arms around my shoulders. I hold my arms out for a moment and listen as she continues to cry before I slowly place them around her. I have no idea what to do right now, I mean what are you suppose to do when you have girl crying hysterically in your arms.

"Chelsea?" I ask quietly. "Are… are you going to be ok?"

She continues to cry for a moment before she nods her head against my chest and lets go of me.

"Y-Yeah… I'll be ok…" She tells me as she wipes away the tears in her eyes.

She looks at me with her water eyes and I try my hardest to smile at her. "I-I never would have guessed that… well… I mean you always seem so happy."

She looks away giving me a sense of shame. "I know… I try to be happy so I can forget about all of that… but sometimes I just slip up, you know?"

"It's alright." I tell her. "I understand."

She wipes the remaining tears in her eyes and gives me a weak smile.

I get up from my spot on the bed and walk towards the fridge. "How about some food, I bet that will cheer you up."

"Alright, what do we have?" She asks me with that feeling of sadness still in her voice.

I open the fridge and look at our disappointing food supply. "Well we have bread, rice balls, and soup. Not sure if you'll want soup since we don't have any bowls around here, let alone a stove to heat it with."

"I guess I'll just have a rice ball." She tells me quietly.

I grab two off the shelf and shut the fridge door with my foot as I turn to face Chelsea. I toss her one of the rice balls in my hands and she grabs it a little too hard and it falls apart in her hands. I stare at her a little nervously unsure of how she'll handle the situation but as soon as I hear her start to laugh I easy up.

"Hm, isn't that funny?" She asks me.

"Heh, I guess it sort of is." I reply as I walk over to her and hold my rice ball out in front of her. "Here, take have mine."

She smiles and takes it from me and starts to eat while I walk back to the fridge and get another one before I sit down next to her again as we eat in silence.

"You were right Mark, I do feel better." She tells me once she's finished.

"Great." I reply.

She laughs a little. "I know we just meet a little while ago and all but it's still... refreshing staying with you... I know that you'll be my friend Mark, I just now it."

"Don't worry Chelsea, I will." I tell her.

She gives me another smile. "So now what are we going to do?"

"I don't know." I reply as lay back on the mattress. "I think I might go to sleep since my back still hurts."

"Still?" She asks.

"Well yeah, I mean you did fall on top of me the other day." I remind her.

"Oh so are you calling me fat or something?" She asks me jokingly while trying to act all pouty.

"No, not at all." I tell her as I lean up a bit and hold my arms out in front of me. "It just hurt that's all."

"I know I shouldn't have waited so long to help you." She says.

"It's alright." I tell her as I sit back up. "You still have ways to go in hurting me until we're even."

"Even for what?" She asks.

"For me dragging you off the boat." I tell her.

"I thought I told you that that was alright." She remarks.

"I know but I still feel guilty about it." I admit.

"You shouldn't feel so bad about that Mark. If it wasn't for me you would've probably died out there remember?" She asks. "You hit your head on the boat and fell unconscious and I had to swim down and pull you up."

"Hm, I guess I should be thankful huh?" I ask rhetorically.

"Yeah." She says before leaning in close to me. "Let's see that bump of yours."

"W-What?" I ask nervously as I back away only for her to come closer.

"That bump on your head." She tells me as she removes my hat delicately. "I want to see if it healed or not."

I look at her with a nervous smile and start to slowly blush as she places her hand on my head and begins to run her hand through my thick blonde hair and touches my head as she searches for that bump. After a moment she brings her hand down to the side of my head and keeps it there.

"Heh, guess it's healed." She tells me.

I look into her big beautiful blue eyes while she looks into my green ones as our cheeks slowly become an intense shade of red. She's just giving me this look that seems to tell me she has a great deal of trust for me, well placed trust. I soon feel as my hand slowly works its way up to hers placed on the side of my head and grabs onto it before bringing it down on the empty mattress space between us and resting. We continue to stare at each other for a moment before she brings her other hand up onto the right side of my face and gently places it against it before slowly pulling me towards her. As our faces near one another I watch as her eyes give into the moment and shut and soon mine do as well. Within a second I feel as her lips press up against mine and she begins to kiss me. I know we just met and I know this is a little weird but I cast those thoughts aside and begin to join her in the moment and let my lips dance around with hers. I place my other hand atop the one that's resting atop hers as she begins to carefully bring her hand down from the side of head and onto my neck. After a few seconds she starts to pull away and we both open our eyes at the same time and gaze at one another.

Did this really just happen? Did we really just… kiss? I… I… I think I liked it…

She smiles at me for a moment before she lets go of me and removes her hand from the bottom of mine and looks away while she brushes away her hair. "W-W-Well then Mark…"

I look away a little awkwardly. "I… well… um…"

The rest of the day was pretty much like that. We just sat there on the bed beside each other looking away in disbelief as the rain drops continued to fall above us one the roof in that hypnotic rhythm of theirs but there was no time to listen. I could feel as my body heated up from the nervousness I felt as I sat beside the girl I just shared a first kiss with.

I mean… Oh geez, all these thoughts I've had, and that time I called her cute… Oh it's all happening so fast…

I could only imagine what she could be thinking at that moment. But one thing was for certain.

Things on this island are about to get a _whole _lot more interesting.


End file.
